The trio- Science, movies and technology- directly and/or indirectly affects our lives in so many ways that we might not even be able to point out all of them. One might question what cinema has to do with science and technology? The answer is simple; cinema brings innovation and creativity. Science fiction movies inspire us to build the ‘fantasy’ gadgets. The recent superhero movies have gained so much appreciation because of the fact that it all seems real. Whether it’s the Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy or the famous Tony Stark a.k.a. Iron Man. These movies have been able capture such huge audience and fan base because of the way technology has been portrayed. Rather keeping their gadgets a big secret we see the movie explaining how they work and what their purpose is. This has brought all superhero movies to a different new level. We have seen replica of Dark Knight’s tumbler and today we are looking at a mask that is somewhat similar to Iron Man’s head gear. It’s uses are immense and the possibilities are endless, and just like the Liberator, this mask has been printed using a 3D printer and its purpose is to enhance your human senses and abilities.
The mask has two fold purposes; improving sight and sharpening hearing abilities. The invention comes from Royal College of Arts in London by a small team of students. Both mask types are at prototype-stage. The first one is designed to enclose one’s ears, mouth and nose. By using a directional microphone, the wearer has the ability to target on an isolated sound even in a noisy environment. The purpose is for the wearer to target a certain person in the crowd and listen to him or her without the surrounding noise making any interruptions. The second prototype is designed for one’s eyes. A camera which is the part of mask captures the video, sends it to a computer which adds effects to it and re-sends the video for the mask wearer, all done in real time. The effects are somewhat similar to long exposure photography.
The project is known as project Eidos and team members include; Tim Bouckley, Millie Clive-Smith, Mi Eun Kim and Yuta Sugawara. The team sees a whole new future for their invention and they see a lot of application of this unique concept to analyze movement and sounds during games. Another use of this project is to be able to listen to a performer in a concert. ‘We are used to controlling the world around us to find the settings that suit us best. But while technology advances to aid this, our physical bodies remain the same. What if we had the same control over our senses? If we could adjust them in real time, what experiences would this make possible,’ this is what the team has to say about their Project Eidos.
Such wearable tech is becoming the talk of the town and there are a lot of possibilities for this idea and unique applications of these gadgets.
