Meet A Real Bionic Man

 

Take a look at the above picture and by awed by it.  What you see in the image is not a trick.  No touching up or photoshopping has been done to the image in any way.  That really is a red, glowing light coming from the right eye socket of that man.

 

Meet filmmaker Rob Spence.  He lost the use of his right eye during a childhood accident and ever since then he has had a prosthetic replacement for cosmetic purposes.  However, a little while ago he realized his vacated eye socket could be used for a whole lot more than just as a place to hold a fake eye.  Last week, Spence worked together with engineer Kosta Grammatis to produce what you see here . . . a working red LED, complete with powersource, that fits inside his occular cavity.

 

The LED, while really cool looking, isn't the ultimate goal though.  No, this was just a test to see if they could make a powersource small enough to fit into his eye socket.  Now that this has been proven possible, Mr. Spence is moving on towards his main goal . . . to install a functioning wireless video camera into his eye.

 

The camera will record anything and anyone that enters Spence's field of vision and relay the footage back to a computer. That video will provide a unique perspective on the way video surveillance is becoming more popular in western societies, he told New Scientist.

 

Once completed, Rob Spence has said he will be the world's first official "Eyeborg".  There has even been talk of including an LED in with the video camera as well, assuming that it won't drain the battery too fast. 

 

On behalf of all of us here at Geek-tastic, I wish Mr. Spence the best of luck in completing his goals.  I find it incredibly cool that he's taking what most would see as a handicap and is turning it into something that could not only be an interesting art project, but could also advance the way in which occular implants are seen.  Let's assume he can get that video camera to work.  Who's to say that in a number of years, doctors won't be able to find a way to get the brain to be able to decode certain types of video signals from eye cameras, thus enabling those who have lost their sight to be able to see again. 

 

It could happen, you never know.  And it's always enterprising people like Mr. Spence who get this sort of thing rolling.  The best of luck to you sir.  May you be a functioning eyeborg soon.

 

(Via IO9)

Geek Item Of The Week - 04/08/09

 

Gigantic Wall Mural of the bridge of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701

 

Ok, since I've already gone into a full blown Trek mania, I may as well start making everything on this site in some way related to Star Trek too.  So with that in mind, here's this week's Geek Item of the Week.  It's a kickass giant wall mural of the bridge of the Enterprise.

 

Ever wish you were aboard Captain Kirk's Enterprise? Now you can with the Star Trek: Bridge Full Wall Mural! Printed on the revolutionary pre-pasted Surestrip material, this extra large, photoreal wall mural puts you in the center of the action, and the backing won't damage the underlying wall. Measures 6 feet x 10 feet.

 

Damn, this thing is huge...and awesome looking.  The colors are gorgeous, and the picture clarity is striking.  Seriously, what giant Star Trek nerd like myself wouldn't want something this awesome in their homes?  Even if the inside of the bridge isn't your thing, what about the outside of the ship?  How' about this bad boy?

 



 

Talk about beauty.  You can find this awesome room improver here.

Two Great Star Trek Clips Make Me Super Happy

 

I swear, every single clip I see from the new Star Trek movie gets me more and more excited to see this film.  First off, there's the above clip, in which we see Karl Urban's dead on perfect portrayal of Dr. McCoy.  Urban seems perfect for the role.  He's got just the right mix of cranky, angry and slightly crazy that is Dr. Bones McCoy.  Wow, talk about absolutely nailing a role.

 

And speaking of nailing (nude nudge, wink wink), here's a great clip of Kirk hitting on Uhura at a local bar.  This is an extended clip that shows us the setup of what will be the bar fight in which Kirk takes on four Starfleet cadets.  I love how Kirk comes off as both smarmy yet smooth while at the same time being totally arrogant and full of himself all at the same time.  This is exactly how I always imagined a young James T. Kirk.

 



 

If this film ends up sucking, I'm going to be pretty much devastated.  After trying for a long time not to get too excited by the prospect of a new Trek film (and a reboot at that), I can't help myself at this point.  Between the trailers and the TV commercials and the clips like this that get out, I'm beginning to enter a full blown Star Trek Mania.  It's going to get bad folks.  I'm just warning you now.  Be prepared.  And if it does end up sucking I'm most likely going to be spending the rest of the summer curled up in my apartment in a little ball crying like a baby as I swig whiskey straight from the bottle.

 

Let's all hope that doesn't happen.  After the horribleness that was Episode I, my liver won't be able to hold out during another bout like that.

 

(Via ToplessRobot and SciFi Wire)

Need Some Green Lantern Goodness To Improve Your Day?

 

Then look no further than the above video.  It's the new trailer for the upcoming direct-to-DVD animated movie of the Green Lantern.  This is coming to us from the same people who made the suprisingly excellent Wonder Woman animated movie, and from the looks of things, this appears as if it might be just as entertaining.

The Eisner Award Nominees For 2009

 

Looking for some good comic reading to get you through the summer months?  Well here's a handy list for you.  The 2009 Eisner Award Nominees have been announced.  The Eisner Awards, for those of you not in the know, are pretty much like the academy awards of comic books.  Nominees are selected from some of the best comics have had to offer in 2009, and the categories of comics cover many different varieties of styles for readers of all levels.  Here's a quick list of the categories:

 

• Best Short Story


• Best Continuing Series


• Best Limited Series


• Best New Series


• Best Publication for Kids


• Best Publication for Teens/Tweens


• Best Humor Publication


• Best Anthology


• Best Digital Comic


• Best Reality-Based Work


• Best Graphic Album—New


• Best Graphic Album—Reprint


• Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips


• Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books


• Best U.S. Edition of International Material


• Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Japan


• Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism


• Best Comics-Related Book


• Best Publication Design

 

And then of course there are also individual artist awards like Best Writer, Best Cover Artist, etc.  If you're looking for some really good comics, but don't know what you want to read, you really should check out the list of nominees because you're guaranteed to find some really excellent stories in the group.

 

Personally, my recommendations are as follows:

 



 

Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai.  Don't let the cartoony look of the characters fool you.  Usagi Yojimbo has been nominated for Best Continuing Series for good reason.  With over 20 years of published history, and having won countless awards, Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo is an incredibly deep and entertaining story of a wandering Ronin (masterless Samurai) who travels around feudal Japan looking for work and to help those in need.  As a starting point, I would choose the Grasscutter storyline, which is available as a graphic novel.  You can find it on Amazon here.

 



 

Comic Book Tattoo.  More of an art piece really than a standard comic book really, Comic Book Tattoo is Nominated for an Eisner in the Best Anthology category.  The book itself is an anthology of art and short stories that have been inspired by the music of singer/songwriter Tori Amos.  Over 80 different artists and writers contributed works to this amazing coffee table style graphic novel.  Over 50 different stories can be found within its pages, and it even features an introduction by author Neil Gaiman.  You can find this on Amazon here.

 



 

Hellboy: Library Edition.  Nominated in two different categories, Best Graphic Album - Reprint and Best Publication Design, Hellboy's Library Editions volumes 1 and 2 collect the first four full story arcs from Mike Mignola's groundbreaking Hellboy series.  The stories center around the title character himself, Hellboy as he investigates strange phenomenon as a part of his job at the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD).  These handsome library editions are huge (9" by 12") and beautifully bound volumes that would look excellent sitting amongst the rest of your amazing literature works in your collection as they take their rightful place among them.  You can find these for purchase here.

 

If you don't like my suggestions, that's totally cool.  Check out the list of nominees and I'm sure you'll find something you'll like amongst them.  In fact, let me know which items on the list you love and I'll have to check them out myself.  I'm always up for hearing about great new comics.

A Rad Looking Short Film I Want To See

 

As I was wandering the internets and looking for cool stuff to post, I happened across an article on Joystiq for a short film called Turbo.  You can see the trailer above.  The film's official site can be found here.  As I said, this is a short film, not a full length feature film.  It's 20 minutes long and it was made by a couple of USC graduate students for less than $100,000.

 

The film is set in the year 2051, where the most popular competitive videogame is a fighting game called Turbo, in which player's fighting moves are motion captured in real time against live opponents as they duel until only one person's game character is left standing.  I can't help but find a lot of the concepts in this trailer interesting as they look like natural extensions of games already in existence.  Turbo looks like a mixing of motion games like Mo-Cap Boxing and Dance Dance Revolution with fighting games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat.  The execution of the gameplay in the trailer makes it feel like this could totally be something that would be ruling the arcades (if they still exist) fourty years from now. 

 

The story itself seems to be a teen melodrama sort of like The Karate Kid in which a young new player is moving up the ranks until he comes across the "bad guy" who happens to be the champion who will do anything to win, including resorting to actual violence.  Enter a wise and skillful teacher and throw in a training montage and you have what looks like a cross between the aforementioned Karate Kid and Tron.

 

The special effects, for a non-studio based short film, look exceptional, and the story is a great modern adaptation of a classic style hollywood tale.  And as opposed to other crappy movies that have been based on fictional videogames (do I really have to mention Brainscan here?), this film actually looks good.

 

If you live in Southern California and wish to see the film, there will be a public viewing of Turbo on May 2nd at 3PM in USC's Norris Theater. The event is free to attend, but seating will be "first come, first seated".  There will also be DVD copies of Turbo available for purchase at the showing  for $10 or less.

New Geek DVD Day - 04/07/09

Ok, so I'm just going to apologize in advance here.  This is pretty much a dead week as far as Geeky DVD releases go.  There was pretty much nothing great geek-wise that came out this week.  We're scraping the bottom of the barrell here folks, so I apologize if this week's selections seem a little less stellar than usual.  Due to this lack of cool things to post, I've done away with the usual category names of Good, Badass and Awesome this week and have chosen new, more appropriate names.

 

With that said, here we go:

 



 

The Good:  Yes Man

 

Why It's Good:  Yeah, I know what you're thinking.  You're thinking to yourself that a typical Jim Carrey comedy isn't really geeky and shouldn't be included on this list.  Typically, I'd agree with you, but as I've already mentioned, this is a slow week and this is the best we've got. 

 

However, the film does have some endearing geek qualities.  In the film, Jim Carrey's boss is played by Actor Rhys Darby who you may know from his role as Murray Hewitt, the manager of the Flight of the Conchords from their HBO series.  Darby plays a total geek in the film and he throws these awesome comstume parties where people get dressed up as characters from a specific film and then all sit and watch the film.  The most memorable of these two events are his 300 party in which everyone dresses up as Spartans and his Harry Potter party in which everyone dresses up as wizards.

 

That's geeky enough to count for this list, right?  The film itself is fun, if rather predictable.  Still though, it's enjoyable to watch, and the geeky references add to the fun.

 



 

The Gooder:  Max Fleischer's Superman (1941-1942)

 

Why It's Gooder:  The old Fleishcher Superman cartoons, while admittedly horribly dated when compared to something like the animated Justice League series, are still fun to watch.  They're an animated version of golden age superman.  They're a look into our collective geek past, and they still have a style that's all their own.  Just check out the awesome cover art to that DVD package.  This is a must have for any Superman fan or fans of animation.

 



 

The Goodest:  The Day The Earth Stood Still

 

Why It's The Goodest:  If you read my review of this film, then you already know I didn't really like it.  As far as remakes go, this was pretty poor.  It wasn't horrible, really.  It just wasn't all that great when compared to the original which is a classic of Science Fiction filmmaking.

 

There are things to enjoy in the film.  I thought Keanu Reeves did an admirable job as Klaatu.  He was a good casting choice for the character and I enjoyed watching him play it.  However, what they did with Gort was stupid and there was that annoying kid that I wanted to slap every time I saw him on screen. 

 

If you're really bored this week and have nothing else to do and really need a new Sci-fi flick, then this remake will fill your needs.  It's worth renting definitely, but I don't think I can fully endorse its purchase.