Captain Cyborg creates human bat with Reg baseball cap It's come to our attention that the media's favourite cybernetically-enhanced human - Kev "Captain Cyborg" Warwick of Reading Uni - earlier this week demonstrated an echolocation hat for blind people on the Beeb's The One Show. Nothing remarkable about that, you might think, but check out just whose hat had the honour of …
"A demo version of the device, with the electronics built onto a baseball cap, shows positive results. Professor Warwick has also had a special 'port' surgically implanted into his arm, giving a direct connection to his nervous system and brain." - WTF..!!
Yes if there is something Captain Cyborg is, its certainly "Special"
I've heard people who studied at Reading refer to him as Warwick of Borg, although they seemed to have more regard for the rubber clad assimilators (wonder if that has something to do with Seven Of Nine?) than Warwick himself.
The early Cybermen - the ones who were scary and rocked rather than the ones who tried to do the Time Warp, wear moonboots or cricketers' batting gloves - had a saying that still chills me to the bone:
"You belong to us. You shall be like us."
Maybe a bit of Colin Baker's Doctor:
"Come on! Aren't you supposed to be programmed to be user friendly or something?"
Or how about Steve Austin's lines in "Cyborg" (The Six Million Dollar Man pilot):
"I'm nobody's robot"
"Doctor Frankenstein, I presume?"
Mine's the coat saying "Revenge is a dish best served cold"
And doing it with spectacles has two advantages:
1) The distance between the sensors can be larger, thus improving the potential resolution
2) Without the cap there's less risk of looking like a Saxo-driving chav
have a good weekend
I'd have thought that a subtle approach would be best here.
I suggest *exactly* the same hat but with the words "Now with Captain Cyborg (tm) echolocation" embroidered in very small letters on the back.
<whalesong>
If it sells well, you can then go on a marketing offensive with an entire range of Captain Cyborg (tm) apparel, posable figurines and other such tat (like T-shirts with "CAPTAIN CYBORG (tm). Fighting the war against Common Sense for the good of Mankind".)
Feel free to chuck in words like "monetize", "brand awareness" and "leverage" at this point in the process.
</whalesong>
Hmmm... During my four years at The University Of Reading, I have never heard anyone refer to him as 'Warwick of Borg', sorry to disappoint but no extravagant names, just Kevin.
From my personal experience in working with him I can honestly say Kevin is a legend, no questions about it! So as the hat! :)
I also did four years or so at Reading Uni and Prof was my personal tutor, I have never found him to be anything except understanding, plesant and generally nice chap. Again, I have never heard of any nicknames, other than The Prof, or Kev.
When I knew him, he was open about the fact that his job was to create publicity for the department and in order to keep Reading as a (if not the) world leader in Cybernetics he was willing to do what it takes to attract attention. Bear in mind that a whole load of his work is targeted at attracting young minds to the subject and not to titilate cynical IT types... (I include myself in the latter category!)
REG, Really, if you are going to create a real Human Bat hybrid, you really need to get the Swiss Bird man involved.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/15/swiss_birdman_backpack_jet_stunt/
Flying jet pack wings, cyberneticly implanted echolocation! Yes! I fell a DARPA funding proposal coming $$$ KC
No, fortunately it's not an "ethical minefield", because he's a nothing but a self-publicising charlatan and isn't doing anything within a million miles of "rewiring our brains". What he's doing is more like holding a joy buzzer in the palm of your hand that's rigged to give you a beep every now and again.
Well, maybe that's a little unfair of me. It's more like sticking your finger into an electric socket and getting a jolt up your arm every now and again.
You could even compare it to one of those bio-feedback machines that makes a tone when it measures alpha-wave frequencies at your scalp. It's every bit as old news and been done before many many times.
But man-machine cyborg, it aint. He's so full of shit there's no room left for circuitry!
Very good, glad to see that you understand a whole lot about how this system works, dispite there being no information on the article.
Could it be that you are actually the one who is full of shit?
By the way, I love it when people stay anon and make personal attacks on those who they don't know, it says a lot...
Ah, the old "anonymous speech isn't trustworthy" fallacy. That's an inversion of the fallacy of argument from authority. If an argument should stand or fall by its own validity, and does not gain strength from the name or reputation of the speaker, then equally it does not lose strength from the fact of the speaker being unknown. After all, you've told us your name is "Fraser". WTF does that tell any of us about the trustworthiness of your words? Nothing, that's what. Since you're so damn curious, I'll tell you my name's Dave. WTF does that tell you about the validity of my opinions? Nothing, that's what.
As to how I can make judgements about his system, despite the paucity of information in the article? I watched the bloody video clip it links to, DUH!.
There is something about the word echolocate - as in what bats do. My foggy eyes keep seeing chocolate. There must be something subliminal going on. I keep thinking chocolate bats; makes a change from chocolate mice. And I am not even hungry; but that never made any difference to the need for C. Perhaps I am turning into my wife.
Mine is the Michelin man suit.
Grumpy Old Git (no chocolate you see!)
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