Tag Archives: Rob Spence

DNA09: Return of the Eyeborg – an appeal for money

As reported on this blog before, Rob Spence aka Eyeborg is going to some serious lengths for his profession. He’s on a mission to to install a wireless video camera in his prosthetic eye.

Journalism.co.uk interviewed him last month and last night got to meet the man in person. This morning Spence spoke to the Digital News Affairs 2009 audience. The project is not quite there yet, it turns out…

He needs $50,000 to complete the eye project, and a funder for the documentary about surveillance he’s making alongside. He’s ‘trying to lock up the funding’ for the ‘Eye for an Eye’ documentary right now and is keen to hear about any potential journalistic opportunities.

As we’ve reported on him before, we won’t dwell too long on the specifics but here’s a couple of the things he said:

“There’s quite a buzz on the online prosthetic eye community.”

“There’s something very human about… [the project] what is a person, if not their eye?”

“I tend to posit myself as a superhero in my stories – you get to fight for justice but you end up being a villain in the public’s view.”

“It’s just a way of blending in, as someone who looks completely normal.”

Extreme journalism: the man who fitted a video camera in his eye

Yes, he’s real. Introducing Rob Spence, aka Eyeborg:

“Meet Rob, he’s a film-maker who lost his eye as a child. He’s embarking on a journey to replace that lost eye with a video camera – a battery operated, wireless, full fledged video camera. He’s assembled a team of world class engineers to do it, and we’re making it happen.”

  • Two videos which give you an insight: one can’t be embedded, so follow the link here. And this (Pre-view warning: possibly the most gruesome video Journalism.co.uk has yet displayed – finish your breakfast first. It starts off gently enough…), from Daily Motion:
  • Spence will be at the Brussels Digital News Affairs Conference in March, DNA2009, ‘to talk about and more importantly to show how his implanted camera works and what it can be used for,’ according to yesterday’s DNA newsletter.

Definitely one for our ‘handy tools and technology’ category.