5 ms·

Looking at how exceptionally crude this "implant" is, it should come as no surprise to anyone how annoying and uncomfortable it turned out to be. The technique

by Udo 14y ago

Looking at how exceptionally crude this "implant" is, it should come as no surprise to anyone how annoying and uncomfortable it turned out to be. The technique here is to embed a small magnet subcutaneously, that's it. I think having a magnetic sense in general would be cool, but not like this. A real piece of cyberware instead of this crude body mod butchery might well be worth trying out. It would be especially nice if it was sensitive enough to work as a compass.

networked 14y ago
There is a conceptually neat non-implant solution if you want a compass sixth sense: http://sensebridge.net/projects/northpaw/ http://sensebridge.net/projects/northpaw/.
- Udo 14y ago
  I think I saw a video about a guy who made something like this himself once. It was pretty neat as he could navigate with his eyes closed and stuff like that!
  - networked 14y ago
    >It was pretty neat as he could navigate with his eyes closed and stuff like that! Sounds interesting. Can you find it? As a related note: considering the problems a magnet implant can cause you (as a person who recently had an MRI scan I'm quite happy I didn't get one), why not make something like Northpaw for sensing magnetism? Make it a ring that vibrates or a flexible wristband that contracts and expands in response to magnetic fields.
    - Udo 14y ago
      > Sounds interesting. Can you find it? Sorry, I looked, but search results are polluted by Northpaw/Eric Boyd - it might have been the same guy though, maybe when he was prototyping. I remember someone doing blind figure-8s on their bike.
iamdann 14y ago
By "cyberware" do you mean something like this? https://idea.popcount.org/2012-07-28-am-i-a-cyborg-now/ https://idea.popcount.org/2012-07-28-am-i-a-cyborg-now/
- Udo 14y ago
  My whole comment was there to point out that this is specifically not what one should consider to be adequate cyberware. It's just body modding.
  - xanados 14y ago
    I think you may not have read the linked post. Scroll down to the bottom and you can see the device he built, which he wears on an armband.
    - Udo 14y ago
      To stay within sci-fi lingo, wearing a detector bracer around your arm does make you a cyborg in the same way that having an iPhone in your pocket makes you a netrunner: it sort of does a comparable job, but at the end it's clearly not a part of your body and it's always going to be an external tool. Humans carrying tools around are awesome, but they're not cyborgs. The prospect of having a real internal augmentation is that it seamlessly and naturally becomes a part of your body. Everything else is a little bit of a cargo cult, which is sort understandable considering the lack of progress we made so far into that area of research.
      - scarecrowbob 14y ago
        I get what you're saying, but I think that you're placing way too much emphasis on the integrity of the body, in a way that folks that use wheelchairs to get around might not. While we tend to think of our bodies as single, solid things, this has more to do with our conceptions of them and less to do with the actual situation. I say this as someone who spends 90% of his time behind glasses, so much so that without them my experience of the world would be so markedly different-- and different even from modding up my eyes via lasik surgery. It's not metaphorical to think of some tools we have as being so ingrained to our selves that they are basically parts of our bodies, even if they are outside/removable/changeable. You might find it primitive, but the fact that it would be a life altering experience for me to live without my glasses indicates to me, at least, that although this technology is external to my body it is every bit as important to my getting by in the world as my index fingers, and thus every bit as much of my being human as my body.
icefox 14y ago
Much simpler I got this magnetic wedding ring: http://www.supermagnetman.net/index.php?cPath=48&osCsid=549bb9c1d09b33803c3dcd9318a92a85 http://www.supermagnetman.net/index.php?cPath=48&osCsid=... I wear it on my right hand (I live in NA, not EU so my real wedding rings go on my left hand). With this I can take it off whenever I want. It is fun to wear, but can get annoying at times. The microwave is the craziest day to day object you will encounter. Mostly it was a fun thing to show off and very handy for picking up anything metallic such as small screws. One of the best experiences has to have been walking on a street that has the power underground. The transformers were on the ground and the magnetic field is like a big ball of water you can move your hand through and about. The "deeper" you stick you hand into the ball (the closer to the box) the stronger it was.
- oscilloscope 14y ago
  Found a clearance section for the magnetic weddings rings, $5-6 a piece. http://www.supermagnetman.net/index.php?cPath=122 http://www.supermagnetman.net/index.php?cPath=122 I'd like to try two rings: one magnetized through the thickness, and the other magnetized through the diameter. That would let me sense two orthogonal vectors from the surrounding field.
  - alexsb92 14y ago
    Have you been able to find anything that would do this, as this would be quite incredible to feel. You can measure magnetic fields with solenoids with wrapped wire, but this would be quite the impractical solution for a ring.
    - oscilloscope 14y ago
      Super magnet man sells rings magnetized both ways. Here are the ones magnetized across the diameter: http://www.supermagnetman.net/index.php?cPath=56 http://www.supermagnetman.net/index.php?cPath=56 I've placed two orders from this site over the past 7 years and it went great both times. The magnets are incredibly strong. These rings will definitely be in my next order I would hesitate to wear a solenoid, due to the induced current from magnetic fields.

by Udo 14y ago

networked 14y ago

There is a conceptually neat non-implant solution if you want a compass sixth sense: http://sensebridge.net/projects/northpaw/ http://sensebridge.net/projects/northpaw/.

Udo 14y ago
I think I saw a video about a guy who made something like this himself once. It was pretty neat as he could navigate with his eyes closed and stuff like that!
- networked 14y ago
  >It was pretty neat as he could navigate with his eyes closed and stuff like that! Sounds interesting. Can you find it? As a related note: considering the problems a magnet implant can cause you (as a person who recently had an MRI scan I'm quite happy I didn't get one), why not make something like Northpaw for sensing magnetism? Make it a ring that vibrates or a flexible wristband that contracts and expands in response to magnetic fields.
  - Udo 14y ago
    > Sounds interesting. Can you find it? Sorry, I looked, but search results are polluted by Northpaw/Eric Boyd - it might have been the same guy though, maybe when he was prototyping. I remember someone doing blind figure-8s on their bike.

iamdann 14y ago

By "cyberware" do you mean something like this? https://idea.popcount.org/2012-07-28-am-i-a-cyborg-now/ https://idea.popcount.org/2012-07-28-am-i-a-cyborg-now/

Udo 14y ago
My whole comment was there to point out that this is specifically not what one should consider to be adequate cyberware. It's just body modding.
- xanados 14y ago
  I think you may not have read the linked post. Scroll down to the bottom and you can see the device he built, which he wears on an armband.
  - Udo 14y ago
    To stay within sci-fi lingo, wearing a detector bracer around your arm does make you a cyborg in the same way that having an iPhone in your pocket makes you a netrunner: it sort of does a comparable job, but at the end it's clearly not a part of your body and it's always going to be an external tool. Humans carrying tools around are awesome, but they're not cyborgs. The prospect of having a real internal augmentation is that it seamlessly and naturally becomes a part of your body. Everything else is a little bit of a cargo cult, which is sort understandable considering the lack of progress we made so far into that area of research.
    - scarecrowbob 14y ago
      I get what you're saying, but I think that you're placing way too much emphasis on the integrity of the body, in a way that folks that use wheelchairs to get around might not. While we tend to think of our bodies as single, solid things, this has more to do with our conceptions of them and less to do with the actual situation. I say this as someone who spends 90% of his time behind glasses, so much so that without them my experience of the world would be so markedly different-- and different even from modding up my eyes via lasik surgery. It's not metaphorical to think of some tools we have as being so ingrained to our selves that they are basically parts of our bodies, even if they are outside/removable/changeable. You might find it primitive, but the fact that it would be a life altering experience for me to live without my glasses indicates to me, at least, that although this technology is external to my body it is every bit as important to my getting by in the world as my index fingers, and thus every bit as much of my being human as my body.

icefox 14y ago

Much simpler I got this magnetic wedding ring: http://www.supermagnetman.net/index.php?cPath=48&osCsid=549bb9c1d09b33803c3dcd9318a92a85 http://www.supermagnetman.net/index.php?cPath=48&osCsid=... I wear it on my right hand (I live in NA, not EU so my real wedding rings go on my left hand). With this I can take it off whenever I want. It is fun to wear, but can get annoying at times. The microwave is the craziest day to day object you will encounter. Mostly it was a fun thing to show off and very handy for picking up anything metallic such as small screws. One of the best experiences has to have been walking on a street that has the power underground. The transformers were on the ground and the magnetic field is like a big ball of water you can move your hand through and about. The "deeper" you stick you hand into the ball (the closer to the box) the stronger it was.

oscilloscope 14y ago
Found a clearance section for the magnetic weddings rings, $5-6 a piece. http://www.supermagnetman.net/index.php?cPath=122 http://www.supermagnetman.net/index.php?cPath=122 I'd like to try two rings: one magnetized through the thickness, and the other magnetized through the diameter. That would let me sense two orthogonal vectors from the surrounding field.
- alexsb92 14y ago
  Have you been able to find anything that would do this, as this would be quite incredible to feel. You can measure magnetic fields with solenoids with wrapped wire, but this would be quite the impractical solution for a ring.
  - oscilloscope 14y ago
    Super magnet man sells rings magnetized both ways. Here are the ones magnetized across the diameter: http://www.supermagnetman.net/index.php?cPath=56 http://www.supermagnetman.net/index.php?cPath=56 I've placed two orders from this site over the past 7 years and it went great both times. The magnets are incredibly strong. These rings will definitely be in my next order I would hesitate to wear a solenoid, due to the induced current from magnetic fields.