July 25a, 2011: Ear! Where?

[ZenGum]

A second picture today. The interview makes it worthwhile. From new scientist at http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/cu...oundaries.html

Why do you have an ear on your left arm?
At the moment this is only a relief of an ear. It's partly surgically constructed and partly cell grown. We need to surgically lift the helix to create an ear flap, and then we will grow a soft earlobe using my adult stem cells. When the ear is more of a three dimensional structure we will reinsert the microphone and connect it to a wireless transmitter. Then any Wi-Fi hotspot will internet-enable the ear.

We are replicating a bodily structure, relocating and then rewiring it for additional capabilities.

So you had a microphone in your arm before?

We had a microphone in there for a couple of weeks. At the end of the surgery the sound was picked up and wirelessly transmitted. So the project is plausible. This ear is effectively an internet organ for people in other places to access, a mobile acoustical organ that anyone online could access and hear what the ear is listening to.

What future projects do you have up your sleeve?
One project is to engineer an insect-like microrobot that can climb up my tongue and into my mouth. It will have a webcam and an LED on-board so we will be able to stream the images live on the internet. I will just have to be careful not to swallow the robot. We will have to make multiples just in case that happens.