Biohacking/Grinder Update: Tim Cannon Implants Circadia 1.0
[quote][dropcap]P[/dropcap]lease note that Circadia is not a medical device, it is strictly for body modification/art purposes.[/quote]
Circadia 1.0 aka HELEDD is a generation one DIY implantable device supporting quantified self experiments from Grindhouse WetWares. Be warned, implanting this device is not for the faint of heart as the final packaging is larger than most people would find acceptable for this application.
The board shown above is 50mm by 50mm but the complete package as implanted is larger. There are other components to the implant including batteries, charging coil, and bio-proofing materials such that the final product is significantly larger than circuit board shown above. See below for a better idea of the final project size.
What does it do? According to the Grindhouse webpage for the device, “Circadia is an implantable device that can read biomedical data and transmit it to the Internet via bluetooth. Instead of taking snapshots of your health by visiting a doctor, you can aggregate weeks or months of medical data that you can store for your personal viewing. Messages, warnings, or texts from your android phone to Circadia implant can be displayed via LEDs through your skin.”
The first generation device has pretty limited functionality including just two sensors, a temperature sensor and a pulse sensor.
The device currently includes:
- LED Binary Chron Clock
- Biological Sensor Measurement (Temperature & Pulse)
- Bluetooth Communications Module
- Main Processing
- Storage
Despite the limited nature of these measurements, this is real-time time from the body that is not generally available for most people, although as some Reddit critics have noted, these measurements clearly could also be obtained via less invasive means.
The actual implantation of the Circadia device is better understood as an artistic demonstration of what might be possible in the future and not necessarily a realistically useful QS system..
Currently the LEDs display the time but I can imagine taking the LED implanting idea much further using these to express mood, display environmental information, etc. It might also be popular at raves 🙂
An implantable LED array might be placed on the back of the wrist to replace a watch. And these already exist.
The risks of the experiment seem to be primarily infection and bruising. Also, I’m guessing Tim is going to be having some problems with traveling via aircraft while he has this implant or at least a lot of explaining to do to various TSA staff.
Watch his YouTube video below to see the device in action.
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Learn more from the Wiki: https://code.google.com/p/heledd/w/list
Get the code: https://code.google.com/p/heledd/
Well someone does need to be the guinea pig for the G1 tech. I am however curious as to the charging mechanism. Since its implanted you obviously cant just connect a charger or replace a battery
if a bigger fish could stay in the pot why not a smaller bigup Tim.try a smaller chip…with more no of sensors to bring better human interface
Is the whole point of this experiment to be extreme and shocking? This device could be a hell of a lot smaller with the same functionality. That wifi module is amongst the largest available.
Please don’t do this kind of stuff. I admire your bravery but this kind of stuff deeply frightens people and alienates them from the cause.
No, the point is to demonstrate a proof-of-concept. The device indeed can be made much smaller, and it will be, but for this test, we need an upper bound on size.
Why do you need an upper bound on size?
Well, when you prove that an implant can survive, which is what we’re doing, wouldn’t you want to prove it with one that’s way bigger than what you ultimately want, just to make absolutely sure?
Ahahah, no, I wouldn’t. It is pointless.
I guess I just disagree, obviously. It’s not pointless; it makes it much more certain that a smaller implant will stay intact if we know that a bigger one does.
No it doesn’t.
If you want to prove that an implant can survive, just implant it.
Surprisingly enough, Tim didn’t have any problems getting through security. Kind of makes me wonder how useful those scanners really are in practice…