Man grows ear on arm to connect it to internet

Risingbd Desk:  In a unique project, an Australian artist is growing a human ear on his arm and plans to turn it into an internet-connected `remote listening device`.

Perth-based artist Stelarc, who is a professor at Curtin University, said he first conceived the idea in 1996, but it took another decade to find the medical team willing to make it a reality. An international medical team inserted a scaffold underneath his skin. Within six months, tissue and blood vessels had developed around the structure.

"The ear is pretty much now a part of my arm, it`s fixed to my arm and it has its own blood supply," Stelarc said. "People`s reactions range from bemusement to bewilderment to curiosity, but you don`t really expect people to understand the art component of all of this," Stelarc said. He now plans to make the ear more three-dimensional — lifting it up off the arm and growing an ear lobe from his stem cells.

From there, a miniature microphone that can wirelessly connect to the internet will be inserted. "This ear is not for me, I`ve got two good ears to hear with. This ear is a remote listening device for people in other places," he said. "They`ll be able to follow a conversation or hear the sounds of a concert, wherever I am, wherever you are. People will be able to track, through a GPS as well, where the ear is," he said.

Stelarc, who is the head of the Alternate Anatomies Laboratory at Curtin University, said the project was a sign of things to come. "Increasingly now, people are becoming internet portals of experience...imagine if I could hear with the ears of someone in New York, imagine if I at the same time could see with the eyes of someone in London," he said.

Source: PTI

Risingbd/Aug 14, 2015/Mukul