On-Body Circuits Create New Sense Organ 289
destinyland writes "In 'My New Sense Organ,' a science writer tests 'a new sense' — the ability to always know true north — by strapping a circuit board to her ankle. It's connected to an electronic compass and an ankle band with eight skin buzzers. The result? 'I had wrong assumptions I didn't know about ... I returned home to Washington DC to find that, far worse than my old haunt San Francisco, my mental map of DC swapped north for west. I started getting more lost than ever as the two spatial concepts of DC did battle in my head.' The device also detects 'the specific places where infrastructure interferes with the earth's magnetic fields.'
Much more practical... (Score:5, Informative)
What qualifies for new sensory organ? (Score:5, Insightful)
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If university students took it upon themselves to do some advanced neurological surgery as a fun project...
THAT WOULD BE AWESOME.
I hope they would Youtube the procedure.
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What would be even more awesome would be if they chose to do it to themselves with the help of some Yoga classes and a mirror. That would make for one heck of a YouTube video.
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Lag !
(and retroaction, but that is another subject)
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Yup. Of course, the next question becomes what, practical, application can you think of in which you would need ultra-low lag in finding magnetic north? Really, most of the, truly, useful applications of direct neural connections would be in the realm of controlling electronic devices and directly manipulating our perception to create realistic VR for entertainment interaction with remote/dangerous environments.
Re:What qualifies for new sensory organ? (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:What qualifies for new sensory organ? (Score:5, Interesting)
The body is an amazing thing. The brain, too. I was recently reading about a camera device that sends signal data to a 'lollipop' that is placed on the tongue of blind people. In short time, the people's brains began to interpret the signals (which are not the same as optical signals at all) as to what it truly was --- and the patients began to see. http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/22/2035256 [slashdot.org]
It really amazes me at the ability of the brain to start with some from of stimulus (beit natural or induced) and decipher its relevance.
The difference in what qualifies 'sensory organ' may well be semantics; or maybe we need new definitions to describe these novel apparatus.
In contrast, neurons are not in direct connection, either; neurotransmitters span a space between them called the synaptic cleft. Those neurotransmitters are chemical stimuli; these 'buzzers' are electronic stimuli. There are some differences and none are very clearly understood, but as far as I know we might accomplish the same by 'buzzing' with small and rapid doses of neurotransmitters instead of buzzing.
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The ability of the brain to find a pattern in some stimuli and built "on the fly" a new sense of it is simply amazing, and opens the possibility of new senses for all, even if is as a fashion trend.
But mass deployment must be aware that it also takes place, or adds "noise", to at least a region of our actual existing senses, information that could have been useful or needed and now become blurred by this artificial input. And there is of course the physical impact of it in that area. Picking the right pla
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While true, we don't really "need" the vast majority of our sense of touch - Aside from letting us know about injuries (which I would expect to far outweigh the input of a small buzzer), any given point on our legs, torso, arms, or even most of our heads, really doesn't matter much so far as sensing environmental input
Re:What qualifies for new sensory organ? (Score:4, Informative)
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i think they invented that system to help SCUBA divers navigate in the dark (and plant explosives on enemy boats at night).
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camera device that sends signal data to a 'lollipop' that is placed on the tongue of blind people.
There's a truly tasteless joke in here somewhere but I'm too lazy to figure it out.
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suck it and you'll see the light.
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maybe we need new definitions to describe these novel apparatus.
I agree. Perhaps something like extra-sensory apparatus, and the usage can be called extra-sensory perception.
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>> Technically this is a computer-brain interface. The device is just using convenient, pre-existing inputs to the brain.
So, does that mean that reading a regular compass in the old-fashioned way, say, by using your eyes, qualifies as a computer-brain interface, since the device (the compass) is just using a convenient, pre-existing input mechanism to the brain (the eyes)?
>> So what the difference if this relies on someone's sense of touch?
The difference then is that the actual "sensoring" is do
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That's a new sense nested inside an already existing sense. Like an HUD in your eye that would show you an infrared overlay would be like a new sense inside your sense of vision.
I found that by simply moving the buzzers... (Score:5, Funny)
...from my ankle to a more "centrally located area" and I stopped caring about getting lost.
In fact, turning in circles became quite pleasurable.
Does anyone have any kleenex handy?
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huh huh huh... organ... huh huh huh...
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I'll tell you what's amazing is that what you just wrote, and the fact that we get it, demonstrates just how deeply we've all internalized OLD ass cartoon characters as outward communicators of our inner dumbass.
This is the future... (Score:5, Interesting)
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You could try superglue for a temporary test.
Latex gloves, even more temporary.
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Tried that. Failed to stick well enough, ripped off when even moderately close to magnetic metals. Maybe my skin's just sub-par. Problem with putting something around it to hold it on (like a bandage): that restricts its movements relative to your skin, spreads out the effect over a larger area, there's less to feel. Implanting seems much more effective, mechanically.
Re:This is the future... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:This is the future... (Score:5, Funny)
The MRI itself will take them out automatically.
True North??? (Score:5, Informative)
I've been to Northern Canada. A compass points to MAGNETIC North. True North [wikipedia.org] is at the North pole, the point on which the earth spins. At true north, the sun never sets, and sometimes never rises for days on end. In summer, it has the longest days in the world. In winter, the longest nights. Magnetic north is not the same place at all ...
Magnetic North [wikipedia.org] has some interesting properties too. Amongst others, the Magnetic south and north poles move around, periodically flip, and do not pass through the center of the earth.
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I think they meant True North being "True Magnetic North" and not what "They thought was North" - which is entirely the fault of the people reporting, because a compass doesn't tell you True North.
But a GPS system could - why not make an App for an IPhone
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I believe the iPhone 3GS built-in compass app already does this.
Re:True North??? (Score:5, Insightful)
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And what a pain in the ass that would be! True north is different from magnetic north depending on WHERE you are measure it from. So that whole ankle thing would have to have a GPS or something, to know how far off of magnetic north to point...
Also, think of how hard it would be to find True north in Australia. Now Magnetic south, that would be easy.. (or do AUS compasses just have the other part of the dial weighted, so the point south.. i've never been sure on that one...)
Re:True North??? (Score:4, Funny)
At true north, the sun never sets, and sometimes never rises for days on end.
I personally would like to see a Sun that never sets and yet only rarely rises.
I recall the study with the compass belt (Score:2, Informative)
It was posted here two and a half years ago [slashdot.org].
Tenuously related question... (Score:2)
What is the best compass technology available today? A magnetised needle is so, erm 20th century - I'd expect a solid state mechanism to identify orientation by now... it's an application I'd like my mobile phone to have.
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You are probably not interested in the "best" "compass" technology today, since you want something for your phone. There are plenty of solid state solutions to magnetic field detection, one cheap one is available from Honeywell, a magnetoresistive bridge circuit which provides 3D field measurement - the HMC1043. I had a watch with one in it for awhile. It's a 1kohm bridge, which explains why it's not in your c
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http://lmgtfy.com/?q=watch+as+compass [lmgtfy.com]
If you know the time, you know your direction. Normally I wouldn't reply with lmgtfy, but you seem to be someone who'd like to know that url.
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Casio has digital compasses in a number of their "Pathfinder" watches. For example the PAG40B-2V [casio.com]. However those watches tend to be a bit pricey ($250-$500) and bulky (in part due to the solar panel, barometer, altimeter and temperature sensors that are also in the watches).
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The iPhone already has an integrated magnetic digital compass...
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but you can get a good magnetic needle compass for like $5.00
Don't need electronics for that (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:Don't need electronics for that (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe he lives in Seattle?
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Phew, good thing you can tell the time of day from the sun's position!
North Paw (Score:5, Informative)
Re:North Paw (Score:4, Funny)
This should complement my House Arrest Ankle Bracelet quite nicely...
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I was going to buy one, but luckily you also included a page on "items you will need".
I'm afraid I'm not one of those geeks who owns a soldering iron, nor do I have any interest in buying one and learning how to use it.
I could be wrong, but you might sell more of them if no soldering was required by the buyer.
Saskatoon (Score:2, Interesting)
L'Efant was an Evil Bastard (Score:2)
i live outside of DC. Driving in that cluster frak is a pain. Street names are confusing, they don't align from block to block, it's not remotely grid like, few places to u-turn. As much as i dislike taking the metro in, driving is just painful.
I've had a similar geographical awakening. (Score:2)
It's really made me much more aware of compass directions. I now give directions based off the compass, rather than left/right.
Her argument against the device (Score:2)
The Incident (Score:2, Funny)
The device also detects 'the specific places where infrastructure interferes with the earth's magnetic fields'
Like the Swan hatch?
A better sensor for this project... (Score:2)
The problems mentioned in TFA including tilt error and local magnetic disturbances (to some extent) are solved by using an integrated 3-axis gyro+accelerometer+magnetometer unit, such as this one: http://vectornav.com/products/74-vn-100 [vectornav.com]
True its not cheap, but if I'm getting a new sensory organ I'd like it to be high quality... :)
Lost in DC? (Score:3, Insightful)
How could anyone lose track of cardinal directions in DC, even for a moment? It's built on a NS/EW grid, with the streets named on a number/letter system. It's got a giant phallic symbol sticking up in the exact middle (which is at 16th street NW, okay, but that still shouldn't affect one's sense of north vs. west).
The only place I can imagine where it would be harder to mistake west for north would be Manhattan, with its street (EW) vs. avenue (NS) distinction being impossible to miss.
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Re:Mental maps... (Score:5, Insightful)
Or Forehead.
Re:Mental maps... (Score:5, Funny)
Compass On
Apply directly to the forehead.
Re:Mental maps... (Score:5, Insightful)
"Men, on the other hand, rarely use anything but a map. If I changed a street sign outside my apartment, my male friends probably wouldn't be able to find the place anymore."
Maybe I'm an exception, but I don't think that's true at all. I navigate entirely by landmarks. I don't even know the names of half the streets I travel on regularly. Furthermore, my mental map of the city is framed by our light rail system, major bus lines, and bike throughfares, not by the major roads carrying automobile traffic.
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On that note, my vision prevents me from reading most street signs far enough in advance to make traffic changes (change langes, slow down and turn, etc.) safely. So I cannot make out Elmendorf DR at 50 yards but the funny looking church, the large hill, the abandoned school are very easy to spot well off in the distance. Or maybe I just drive too fast, that's almost certainly true. I use maps whenever I can but mostly to find the landmarks I'll use to make the turn instead of the name of the street. Ob
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On that note, my vision prevents me from reading most street signs far enough in advance to make traffic changes (change langes, slow down and turn, etc.) safely.
Don't take this the wrong way but it sounds to me like you have no business having a drivers license if your vision is that poor.
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I have the same problem almost, I have to really pay attention to signs. I don't really think it's a big problem though since thankfully 99% of driving is recognizing shapes, not trying to read letters several hundred feet away while constantly trying to avoid a collision with any of these shapes I mentioned earlier. YMMV.
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I do both.
When I'm in D.C. I think in terms of the red/blue/green metro lines, but once I'm back in my car I think in terms of north, south, east, west, and beltway (to be avoided).
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Same here. In fact I prefer to use Google street view to figure out a new route and use the street names only as a backup.
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Maybe I'm an exception, but I don't think that's true at all. I navigate entirely by landmarks.
I am the same way, I just know where stuff is. I go back to Santa Cruz (where I was born) and I can find everything but I could never tell you how to get anywhere unless it's really close to a main artery, and sometimes I get the names of those confused.
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And then there are those of us who use different systems entirely. (Go about 1.5 minutes, then turn left 45 degrees...)
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Sounds like you still have an somewhat abstract mental map. It sounds awfully close to what I'm using. I'm still can't easily take directions from most my female friends though.
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And do you enjoy watching The View?
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Men navigate by distances, direction (vector deltas), speed, time, and other such navagational methods.
Women tend to navigate by landmarks and familiarity.
Just ask a guy and a girl (separately) to give directions to some place. The guy will usually give directions by road name (or number), distance, and left or right turns. The girl will usually identify the roads by what's on them or where they go, places to turn by a landmark, and the direction to turn by what's on that side of the road (or the opposite s
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True.
I suspect it is also related to the generality that men are better communicators, while women are better listeners.
Men want to understand (and to be understood). Women want to feel (and want you to feel the same way). We've probably all heard the saying, "If a woman tells you about her problem, she doesn't want you to solve it, she wants you to listen". Of course it's not always 100% true, but it's still an accurate generalization.
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Re:Mental maps... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Mental maps... (Score:4, Insightful)
1) Find a quote from the article, and claim you've always known it, and what is more everybody already knows it.
2) Make AWESOME generalisations about "how, like, men and women are different, yeah?"
Really insightful. Can we remove the current judges and get new ones?
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Men, on the other hand, rarely use anything but a map. If I changed a street sign outside my apartment, my male friends probably wouldn't be able to find the place anymore.
Balderdash.
I navigate using a combination of landmark and maps. Like most people, in an unfamiliar area I will use maps exclusively. In an area I am acquainted with though, I pick freeway exits/turns at intersections from a map of the area in my head, but landmarks to guide me to the exact destination. I had to think for a second to come up with the road the supermarket is off of, but could tell you instantly that it is in the shopping center across from the Home Depot. I most certainly don't use any me
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Balderdash.
I know what anecdotal evidence is.
P.S. There have been studies that support the point.
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Not that I'm surprised -- women will navigate first by landmarks and familiarity, and if that fails they fall back on maps. Men, on the other hand, rarely use anything but a map. If I changed a street sign outside my apartment, my male friends probably wouldn't be able to find the place anymore. My female friends, on the other hand, would show up and likely never notice the sign was changed.
In my experience, and pretty much the experience of the vast majority of men on this planet, it's the exact opposite, so I think you are a bit mistaken with your beliefs in your friends.
If you want your obligatory quip about evolution, here you go: men have evolved from hunters and they had to know their landscape pretty damn fucking well in order to catch that $animal, whereas women have evolved from collectors of berries who were pretty much forbidden to venture more than a minute's worth of walking away
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didn't you mean 'stick it on our bikes'???
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Re:Mental maps... (Score:4, Funny)
I think it's cultural.
I lived in Scotland for a while and whenever I asked for directions the men would always say something like: drive down this road a piece until you get to the Crooked Horseshoe Pub, take a right and drive to the second roundabout after the Dog and Monkey Pub. Take the third right and drive to the Old Tennents Pub. Go right at the next roundabout and drive about 3 miles. If you reach the Goose Bridge Pub you've gone too far... Stop and have a cold one, then go back about a mile or so.
Show them a map and they look at you like you just asked them to diagram a sentence in Latin... and you're likely to hear some quaint Scottish expressions...
Re:Mental maps... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Mental maps... (Score:4, Insightful)
[Citation needed]
Like most men, I suck at giving directions because I can't remember the actual names of most of the streets used. Just like women, men navigate by running a sequence of events in a specific order, navigating by waypoints (landmarks) rather than absolute position. I suck at estimating the distance between landmarks, too, to the point where sometimes I get discouraged and turn around before I reach one, thinking I've already gone past it. And... (checking below belt buckle...) I'm definitely male.
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Not that I'm surprised -- women will navigate first by landmarks and familiarity, and if that fails they fall back on maps. Men, on the other hand, rarely use anything but a map.
That's not quite true. Your explanation is generally accurate for how men and women give directions, and for if they're going somewhere they've never been (or have been a few times but don't know the way by memory yet). Women will give spatial directions (turn left at the QuikTrip, turn right at the second street past the big church on the right...) whereas men will generally use street names.
However, if you've already been somewhere a few times, it doesn't matter whether you're male or female: If you've be
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No, but the user might know how to correct for it.
Step 1: look up magnetic declination for your location (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/IGRF_2000_magnetic_declination.gif [wikimedia.org]
Step 2: rotate the ankle bracelet to compensate.
Or stand where you know you are facing true north, then rotate anklet until it indicates true north.
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Step 1: look up magnetic declination for your location (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/IGRF_2000_magnetic_declination.gif [wikimedia.org]
With only 8 transducers, thats 45 degree resolution, and per the map there are very few people living where the declination error approaches 45 degrees, or even within an area exceeding 22.5 degrees. If you somehow could detect even a 12.25 degree error, most of the worlds population would only be at most one "digit" off.
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Why not just add a GPS receiver into the mix to compensate for MN/TN separation? If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing - right? It only needs to be accurate within 20 miles or so (unless you're in Antarctica or the North Pole) which should still get you easily within a degree of the offset so grabbing location from the nearest cell tower should be more than enough.
Of course, there's always the more traditional, low-tech solution of spending five bucks on a compass and a map, which usually has the magnet
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At that point, it may be worth just replacing the present system with a GPS as the GPS system, on it's own, is probably much more accurate at calculating heading.
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It buzzes when the sensor faces magnetic north. If the sensor faces magnetic north when you are facing true north (because you turned it around your leg), then BAM.
The real problem is the angular resolution of the sensor--at a 45 degree resolution, the MN/TN distinction is lost in the data noise anyway.
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That might explain the comment in the article - "My mental map of DC swapped north for west." Perhaps the device isn't showing true north, but a slightly-skewed northwest. I've had similar arguments with my coworkers in this region:
"I-95 runs west and east."
"No it doesn't! It's either north or south."
"Uh yes overall, but through Baltimore it runs a west-east route. The highway lies south of Baltimore's downtown."
"You're nuts."
"Gee thanks."
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I don't think you understand what is really going on here. This device does not present data that is interpreted by consciousness, like you would by seeing street signs or looking at a GPS. The user isn't deliberately sensing the signals and thinking 'ok, now THAT buzz means i'm going north'. Rather the user senses north in what is better described as 'instinct'.
You don't shiver (move muscles to generate heat) when it is cold because your consciousness thinks "oh, I sense cold--- i should jiggle my muscl
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It is different because you have constant sensory input. It is the difference between sensing temperature with your skin, and by looking at a thermometer. You become aware of changes in temperature immediately whether you were thinking about it or not.
With this device, you become "intuitively" aware of what direction you are facing all the time, whether you are actively navigating somewhere or just walking around a building. It becomes part of your situational awareness rather than a tool you can use when y
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But you can't wear earbuds while driving (legally, anyway).