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The K.I.S.S. Mentality in action
Ok, i am completely new to the site and new to the idea of functional implants. I have no background in physics, biology or advanced electronics. I'm no super-geek, no brilliant basement innovator and certainly not rich. Truth is, I'm a 30 year old combat veteran with a brain housing group full of common sense and a pocket full of curiousity. Now that the introductions are out of the way, i have something that can be of use to any community delving into the edgy section of modification. My contribution is the KISS mentality. For those unfamiliar with it, the idea is "Keep it simple, stupid!" Also known as dummy-proofing or Barney style.
I have been noticing that many of your threads speak of incredible and facinating ideas, but face issues when it comes to the real estate department. Sonar devices and health monitoring systems that require "downsizing" to be effective as implants. I would like to offer as a solution an idea. No, I'm not selling it or asking for funding. Aside from buying a pack of smokes and getting a lapdance, your money wouldn't do me any good.
My idea is this... Why not use currently available cosmetic implant locations and techniques to place processing units or data interpretation units in the body, and use the areas of prime real estate for detection and transmission? Before you stop reading, hear me out. The think tank of a smartphone or tablet would be too large to implant in your hand or arm. God knows we dont want to put pressure on our organs by using the stomach cavity or chest... But men AND women get cosmetic augmentation on a regular basis. Silicon bags filled with saline solution make women more attractive (take it from a strip club frequent flyer) and men get similar augmentation all the time. The advent of the sub-muscular cosmetic implant means a layer of padding to protect the precious electronic device. Bluetooth connections and wifi connections could turn a laptop computer into an augmentation control device for updating software inside your chest or your calf muscle or buttocks. Standard implant procedures last ten years before needing replacement. Most of you guys would be updating implants much more often than that... look how often you need a newer cell phone!
Imagine a cosmetic pectoral implant housing a complete processing unit in the right breast and a battery pack in the left, both padded by a half inch of silicon for impact protection (not as squishy as the saline filled implants, but who's complaining?) A charging device has already been offered us. Isnt there a pad that you can lay your phone on and it charges while it lays there? So turn that into a nightly ritual! So power supply doesnt need to be small, and cpu can rival the most high tech cellphones out there, now all you need is your data input devices. To that, I leave more skilled minds than I. Cameras, listening and recording devices, rangefinders, a simple compass, even a visual interface device similar to Google Glasses could be wirelessly connected to the processing unit to whatever sensory ends the user demands. True flexibility. And a standardized data interpretation device (the cpu) potentially means standardized language from each input device.
Oh, an afterthought in the way of sensory interface... A heads up display using glasses would be the easiest way for the brain to interpret the information relayed to the computer from the input devices in my humble opinion... Until implanted electronics advances enough to make them obsolete. It prevents you from needing to learn a new language, as it seems those of you with magnetized fingertips complain about.
Not exactly a DIY but the increased business would certainly be enough to get a plastic surgeon on board, i would imagine. Ok, hit me. What do you guys think? Of course, to a perv like me it just means more implants out there... No complaints here!
Comments
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This may not fall into the category that most of you seem to be heading towards. I notice that most of the posts seem to speak of CNS interfacing and gene modification as a direction of the Biohacker community. This is a way to broaden the horizon of biohacking, and it has naught to do with the how or why. To integrate the CNS into data interpretation is certainly possible but it seems that having a distinct purpose to this should be more focused upon. As example, by using a cpu and a visual display overlay, one could store and convert Electromagnetic field data gathered from the fingertips to create a visual interpretation of these fields. You could use vocal (or subvocal) commands to open an close programs within the cpu housed within the body, take and make phone calls, use small pressure plates as a button to control certain functions much the way that bluetooth headsets answer a phone call. Though i am not sure this falls within the desired scope of this community, to the outsider it seems much more plausible to use already available technologies in a way other than that which they were designed for. Something as simple as an implanted android processor from a smartphone and a forward thinking software developer could open doors for you.
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A full reply will have to wait till after work, but let me just say this now: NO and I mean NO western surgeon will implant non-medically necessary electronics, barring a complete disregard for his/her career. Plastic surgeons make good money, the last thing they need is that kind of liability. Our implants are pretty much either DIY installs or possibly medical tourism. Not shutting you down, just letting you know.
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You speak the truth. No WESTERN cosmetic doctor... But I come to you from a community that sees taking a vacation in Mexico or Thailand to work out with enhancing supplements is considered as normal (Mexico means no airport screenings). The question is how far are you willing to go, and can you reach your destination without breaking any of the rules? The truth is, the biohack community isn't the only threaded together by the internet, and consisting of shunned behavior. Medical tourism is more possible than many people think. In an age where a guy like me (with a trip to western union and a half hour on the computer) can have literally anything delivered to his door, why limit the scope of work to DIY when there are people willing to do so much for money? Not to split hairs, but we are strictly speaking, there is nobody that can tell us not to. The constitution states that our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are God given rights that cannot be infringed upon. Religious arguments aside, if our country was founded on these tenants than how would outsourcing implants to a foreign surgeon be wrong? My post was made in hopes of finding conversation on the how. Would it really be that hard to combine a cpu and power unit to a screening device that (as example) is grafted to the skin inside the nostril to detect even trace amounts of odor to increase the capabilities of the olfactory sense? And the diagnostic readout then transmitted to a set of glasses where you could view the results of a diagnostic process that determines its most likely source? For a man like me, finding a surgeon to do rhinoplasty and a pectoral enhancement (with prescribed painkillers, post operative care, etc.) is much less difficult than finding someone to write the program and test the system before i put a half pound of electronics in my chest. Nationality of the surgeon doesnt always determine quality... But it does determine liability and i would trust knowledge of implant rejection issues to someone who dealt with them often before i tried DIY next to my main pump.
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The KISS principle is well known among engineers and programmers. There are a few things i want to point out about implants and electronics. Unlike a smartphone, an implant is not made for entertaining and general purpose use. Instead, implants are tailored to perform specific tasks, over many years as somewhat possible. Tasks like reading out a few sensor values, process them, drive some electrodes. This requires only a fraction of computing power. Most of the time such an implant's main cpu would run at a mere 32kHz clock, compared to 1300000kHz for an iphone5 cpu. So there is very little electricity demand. And even a tiny Lithium battery, the size of a dice, can power such an implant for several weeks. Downsizing things in electronics is actually rather easy as most parts are available in a variety of different cases. Throwing enough money at it will allow you to miniaturize most circuits down to the size of a peanut. Building pencil sized implants is a good choice for DIY stuff and can be done without horribly expensive lab equipment (some tools and experience are required tho) So far, the implants in development aim to keep surgical demands to a minimum. Like making a 2cm long cut, slide the implant in, and take care of the cut. Having a surgeon around sure helps, but not needing one in first place is only of advantage. KISS pretty much applies to everything after all. Including function definition, building, implantation, operation, maintenance, update and removal.
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I definitely see where you are coming from. I once cleaned and superglued my own to-the-tendon work related wrist cut, i'd have traded it for a 2cm opening any day... The simplicity was in a higher powered, remotely programmable, multi-function base around which to design the attachments (which could and hopefully would be much more DIY). Basically if you have one platform that, while difficult to install, simplified future installations and upgrades, you achieve simplicity in the long run.
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Well there are plans for pretty much that. Except the high power and difficult to install part. I am currently working on a modular approach. With modules for the cpu, inductive charging, communication (and with it optional re-programability), interfacing with the body, and a few different sensors. New modules can be designed independently. The idea is to have a high re-usability for the existing parts. The single modules will be stringed up by just a few wires. The assembly is then put into PTFE shrinking tube, sealed and implanted. Resulting in a semi-flexible thin and long implant. Where the journey will go from there on — I don't know. Tests and simulations so far are promising.
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Do you intend to do anything about impact protection? Most of the ideas seem subcutaneous and would therefore be subject to outside forces. Most complex devices have moving pieces internally, making them sensitive to impact and subject to heating up and degrading (suggesting the need for cooling fans or perhaps suspension in a heat diffusing case). These qualities led me to silicon. Inside the body, provided the device doesnt heat above 932 degrees, the silicon temperature would be regulated by your body much easier than a smaller device without a case because of the larger surface area and basic heat diffusion principles, right?
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At least for the implant system i am planning, there are no moving parts. and the semi-flexible structure should be enough protection from impacts. if not, a plastic or aluminum encasing could be addded. Heat is also of no concern. The implant is targeted to generate between 50 and 200μW waste heat. Or about 200 times less than a simple LED would. Heat transport is not limited to diffusion but also involves convection and radiation. Within the body we deal with mostly flowing water and thus convective heat transport is dominant. It still depends a bit on the actual geometry and materials used, but generally i'd say having only a thin coating with good thermal conductivity is better suited than a thick silicone coating. It depends on the materials and case,tho. And high power consumption causing a lot of waste heat is undesired anyway. Besides, we don't even have a suited power sources to operate such things. For what we deal with at the time ( all electronic implants), heat is no big deal. The entire energy from the battery i plan to use could only heat the body by about 0.005K
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@ThomasEgi: are you going with li-polymer? Or another chemistry?
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So far I'm planning for a li-based battery as there are many great battery management circuits available for those. LiFePo is high on my list. The battery module is rather simple, so building a new one for a new battery type is no big deal.
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EternalStudent, we also have the problem that no biosafe flexible wiring currently exists. It would need to be both to truly do what you are talking about. Transmitting power or data across parts of the body.
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@John what about conductive glue? After drying.. bioproof it? Just a thought. Iv heard of it and seen it at thinkgeek but I dont know if it drys like hot glue, hardens. Obviously toxic.
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