6.9.10

borg schmorg

first of all, two or three people have asked me what my IQ is again, and for what i wish would be the last time, it's 145 - least, it was the last time i got tested. in actuality that means it could be anywhere from 135 to 155, not that the latter's likely. IQ is a pretty worthless way of measuring intelligence, in any case, and likely i'd do no better in terms of real intelligence than someone who routinely scores 100.

secondly, Borg, schmorg. i don't believe in forcing modifications on anyone.

i get some really stupid emails.

this post's actual purpose, of course, is to provide a space for us to discuss the current design of the subdermal Northpaw. right now, mine is:

MSP microcontroller with custom software
ring of 8 neuroelectrodes around ankle
Philips compass module
transmitter coil
lotsa wires

i am going to take this mess, and by Carl Sagan i am going to make it work. this is where you all come in.

BEGIN.

L

18 comments:

spoon said...

Aye, aye, I'm tinkering with a wiki engine for THE PROJECT.

I'm going to de-web2.0 it. I refuse to host bright fucking colours and curved rectangles! Grrrr.

However, it should be on the net tomorrow. I'll let you know.

Max said...

You forgot about the lithium cell and any electronics thatay have to be installed between coil and cell.

Did you actually get hate mail that compared you to the borg? Cool, you're making stupid people angry. That's usually a good sign, if I may mention the names Dawkins, Galileo, and the flying Spaghetti monster project.

'Uncle Lepht, how high was your IQ again?'
'145, but that was before I got this homebrew implant. Run, vermin, or I will make your heads explode with the mere power of my mind!'

Anonymous said...

For the northpaw, have you considered building and running an external version before going the implant route? I'm very interested in the idea myself, but I'm not sure if I have the intestinal fortitude to carve out a ring around my ankle.

Seems like you could get 90% of the benefit with a well-fit ankle bracelet to start that would allow for testing the firmware on your chip and for testing different methods of powering the device. I guess the tradeoff would be that for a sub-dermal version, you wouldn't need as much of a stimulus (and thus less power) to actually feel which direction was north. At least theoretically that's true.

Lepht said...

this, gentlehumans, is why it is good to have genius friends with too much free time: you get free wiki.

welcome to THE PROJECT, everyone.

i did forget about the lithium cell, which is because i am an idiot. as far as i know nothing goes between coil and cell, but that may just be false hope... regardless, it's all going in there.

yep, i get a lot of idiotic mail. am i trying to play God, do i think i can outdo nature, why am i such a crazy man making all this stuff up, blah blah blah.

SHOOP DA WOOOOOOOOOOOP

L

Lepht said...

winhamwr - yeah, i have a regular Northpaw already (the vanilla version is made by smarter people than i, and is a leg cuff.) you're right about the tradeoff; also, i can't be assed with two prototype branches.

you'd be surprised what you have the fortitude to do, when it comes down to it.

L

Max said...

You already have a northpaw? Tell me, does that new sense become subconscious at some point (as in your simply knowing which way is north, or not really noticing the device) or is it as mundane a feeling as a constant twitching on the sweet spot which should serve as a reminder of your orientation?

I still see no wiki... spoon, pay up.

Anyway... Yeah, you're trying to outdo nature. Which, contemplating the kind of people one meets on a daily basis, shouldn't be that hard. Then, what's the point of sending you hate mail if one thinks you're making everything up (including the photos and that wondawful video) anyway?

Unknown said...

Have you found neuro-elctrodes yet? I'm looking for some as well for a separate project.

Lepht said...

Max - i dunno, i just built it; i never got around to attaching the kinetic outputs. from the original designers, though, i am fairly sure it does become subconscious. that's become sort of the point of haptic devices, as far as i see.

i'm not trying consciously to top what we've already got; i just see it as a baseline, and i honestly don't understand the religious perspective that somehow it's wrong to try to improve our quality of life. religion fucks people up so much that they don't even know they're fucked up...

epsilon - alas, no. they're pretty scarce. let you know.

L

H+ Guy said...

Some food for thought; A lithium battery at about body temp will lose approx 40% of its charge capacity in 1 year. Internal oxidization which increases internal resistance also occurs. It can eventually get so bad that none of the charge inside the battery can get past the higher resistance.

With this in mind you might want to make it so the system will still function at less than 100% of the stated power of the battery.

[source] (i really need to learn how to embed links) http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm

There is also the issue of the... explosiveness of lithium ion batteries. If something goes wrong they can heat up and shoot 600 degree smoke; not what you want on the inside of your leg. Fortunately "It is possible to replace the lithium cobalt oxide cathode material in li-ion batteries with lithiated metal phosphate cathodes that don’t explode and even have a longer shelf life.", according to the new york times.
On the down side i have so idea where to get such a battery from. At least not a small one; they tend to be used in electric cars.

Either way you are going to need to replace that battery after 3 years no matter how good at charging it you are. Lithium seldom lasts longer than that and especially not at body temp.

I wonder if there is a better battery out there but ho hum.

Unqualifed to speak said...

@H+ Guy: take a look at the rechargeable ones of these.

Lepht said...

battery knowledge noted. i was under the impression that we had a rather longer half-life for them than that, but we'll see. in any case i am not averse to replacement surgery.

L

ianmathwiz7 said...

@H+ Guy:

in order to embed links to stuff like Wikipedia, you just need to remember this (though i just use a html cheat-sheet):

href="webpage">Words you're embedding the link on

with <a at the beginning and the corresponding closing tag at the end.

Shiprat said...

Now, I don't know shit about stuff. And I did realize just today that people were actually successfully wetware-modding themselves like this, but bear with me.

Have you considered transcutaneous energy transfer as a way to renew the charge in you subdermal compass?
This would mean you could reduce capacity and hopefully size of the battery. Lets say you battery held a weeks charge or two; when you needed more you'd strap on an ankle-worn inductive charger with some AA bats or something and charge off of that for a couple of hours. Of course actually rigging up the subdermal receiver coil is way out of my range.

The immediate problem I see with this method would be size (how small can it get? I DONT KNOW.) and heat. I believe heat is generated at both the receiving and transmitting coil, but that should be controllable by lowering effect; at the power-levels we are talking here it should be manageable.

As I said though, I don't know shit, i'm just a guy with access to google.

Shiprat said...


Transcutaneous Energy Transfer System for Powering Implantable Biomedical Devices

Lepht said...

Shiprat - i think, given size issues, i'll stick with the coils+cell as my main candidate for power. thanks for the input, though.

L

Unqualified to speak said...

That transcutaneous energy transfer is exactly what we're talking about, written up for doctors. At least, according to the abstract.
They got a coil implanted in a sheep, so I'm yanking down the paper and giving it a look. I'll pass it on if it's any use.

Unqualified to speak said...

Sleep? What is this "sleep" of which you speak?
(",)

Unqualified to speak said...

...well, apparently not. I keep forgetting I have no Springerlink access. I'm having a dig around the subject area, though; people who have already thought about how to power subdermal junk are a handy resource....

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