Personally I’ve been waiting for my super human powers to kick in for years, if X-men has taught me anything I know that my ability to shoot lasers out my fingers is just around the corner. Now the wait could be over, for some super powers at least, not so sure about the laser fingers thing! With the added benefit of not being hit by an A-Bomb or getting bit by a spider first.
Scientist Michael McAlpine is looking to make the process of getting super powers as simple as a trip to the pharmacy and picking one off the shelf. His first invention was a kind of tattoo for teeth that can detect cavities. Yeah I know, “is it a bird? Is it a plane? Noooo, It’s Tooth Ache Man!” Doesn’t have the best ring to it, but his latest idea does.
His new project is a 3-D printed bionic ear, which gives you superhuman hearing when worn. The biomechanical structure was fabricated for it using live cells and conductive silver in layers. Cochlear implants that are used to treat hearing impairment are made by hand in a slow process, but this new 3-D printing process makes everything much quicker and easier.
“Repairing lost hearing is an incredibly noble goal,” says McAlpine, “but what we made was a coil that receives electromagnetic signals and formed a direct connection with your brain.” Something that could be used to hook your phone sounds directly into your brain, the ultimate privacy headphones and his implant system would only need minor modifications to the existing process to achieve it.
When we say super human hearing, we are not just talking about hearing things far away or that are quiet. Tapping directly into the brains signals that deal with sound means you could hear outside the normal 20 – 20,000hz spectrum, want to hear what bats or dolphins hear?
It’s another interesting use of 3-D printing and biotech, who knows what can be created next by enhancing the signals sent to our brains.
Thank you Wired for providing us with this information.
Image courtesy of Deus Ex.
It would be awesome to walk outside your house and hear an entirely different world. 😀
mind blown
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I’d love to have a eye version of that… Being able to see all wavelengths… infrared, ultraviolet, x rays, microwaves, fm/am, television waves..
You wouldn’t want that, there are hundreds of waves crossing the air every second, you would go crazy in a few seconds.