I don’t remember exactly what year, maybe ’92 or ’93, I decided to head back to school and take a couple of Junior College courses. One of them was astronomy, because I’m a serious science fiction fan and always enjoy reading stuff about space, and the search for extraterrestrial life, and stuff like that. Well, astronomy turned out to be a lot more difficult, tedious, and math-centric than I’d imagined, so one course was all I took in that field, but the professor I had was the best kind of professor: someone who is totally in love with their subject and eager to teach anyone who will listen absolutely everything they know.
Blink to click
One thing he said that stuck with me was that astronomy was responsible for the rapid advancement in camera technology. This was in the early 90s, so cameras are not only better now than then, they are barely the same thing, but he was right and it’s just a case of the march goes on. His point was that no matter how clear the shot, astronomers were always going to demand something clearer, and they were a constant, dependable market for whatever was better than anything that had gone before.
When I read this, I thought of that. German neuroscientist Aldo Faisal has invented a device for manipulating a computer just with your eyes. Of course, he’s not the first, but the models now on the market cost about 25,000 euros and his device, which he built with the camera from a computer game and some low tech adjustments, will sell for about 15 euros.
The original intent, and one possible early application, is to make it possible for paraplegics to use a computer. Definitely a worthy goal.
Personally, technophobe that I am, this may not have any application for me. I reckon computers are too sensitive as it is, always popping up with ads just because I accidentally put a cursor somewhere near them. But, I applaud the effort anyway.
It brings us one step closer to the merging of the internet with actual human minds and, when that happens, look out, world.
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