StelarcYep, you read the title correctly.
An Australian professor and performance artist is growing an ear on his arm as part of a new project.
Stelarc, as he’s known, has been working on the project for almost a decade. He had a biopolymer scaffold in the shape of an ear placed under his skin, and in six months his tissue and blood vessels grew around it.
His next step is to grow an ear lobe, and eventually get a microphone and wireless transmitter inserted so the ear can connect to the internet.
StelarcBut why has he done this, I hear you ask? Well, so people can connect to it via Wi-Fi and hear what the ear is hearing.
Stelarc told ABC News:
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. They’ll be able to follow a conversation or hear the sounds of a concert, wherever I am, wherever you are … imagine if I could hear with the ears of someone in New York.
The professor has been working on blurring the lines between body and machine for a while, and this experiment is another attempt to push the boundaries of human-robotic fusion.
Here’s a video of him talking to Today about it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=28&v=XrV-ULw2L6w
Keep an ear to the ground for any future developments.
