The NewsDemon Blog

Before and After?

Tanya Vlach a San Francisco artist who lost an eye in a 2005 car accident, wants a Web cam installed into her prosthesis. Vlach, who now wears a realistic acrylic prosthesis says she’s issued a challenge to engineers on her blog: build an “eye cam” for her prosthesis that can dilate with changes of light and allow her to blink to control its zoom, focus, and on/off switch.

“It is possible to build a wireless camera with the dimensions of the eyeball,” said Want, a senior principal engineer at Intel. “You can find spy cams or nanny cams designed to fit into inconspicuous places in the home.”

Want also saw the potential for a system like this to serve as a personal memory back-up saying, “You’d never lose anything. You could ask it, ‘Where was the last time I saw my keys?’”

Once she’s captured some content, Vlach wants the freedom to move it to a PC by Bluetooth, Firewire, USB or memory card. The eye would be powered with a wireless charger. Uploading the content to Newsgroups could be a great channel to share and communicate her content.

Vlach’s challenge, first reported by tech blogger Kevin Kelly, has inspired blog posts from around the world and e-mails to Vlach from dozens of eager engineers. We’ll be keeping an eye out for more details [sic].