The problem with modern technology, some seem to think, is that it just isn’t meaty enough. Previously, there was some sulfur-smelling portal connecting the underworld to our level of existence vomited Skin-On interfaces, a gruesome solution to a serial killer’s muttered complaint that phones just don’t have enough human skin.
Now the same folks behind Skin-On (en a creepy robot finger on the phone) have returned with Eyecam trying to switch the design of a typical webcam by enclosing it in a disembodied eye socket.
Created by a research team from Human Computer Interaction Lab led by Marc Teyssier, the Eyecam sits on top of a monitor, just staring at you a bit while trying to get something done other than dwelling on its survival A video that limits its functions asks us to “Imagine Eyecam waking up on its own” before showing us exactly that. The clip tells us to “Imagine Eyecam observing all your steps” and “Imagine a bond with Eyecam” before seeing images of a man stroking the horrible device and smooth the hair on his single eyebrow.
Eyecam’s website describes its greater purpose. “By introducing Eyecam, an anthropomorphic webcam that mimics a human eye,” it reads, “we are challenging conventional relationships with ubiquitous detection equipment and calling for a rethink of how detection devices can look and behave.” The evil cyclops tube certainly accomplishes all of this, as does the goal of Teyssier and the Human Computer Interaction Lab: “[highlighting] the privacy concerns of detection devices. ”
Now that we have both Eyecam and Skin-On, it doesn’t seem like much longer before we have very meaty computers that we don’t have to operate with a mouse, keyboard or touchscreen. We look forward to starting our workday by climbing into their clammy silicone embrace– a perfect synthesis of blood, plastic and metal, more terrible than anything else Cronenberg or Tsukamoto could think of.
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[via The Verge]
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