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Do you want legs that let you jump 10 feet high? Or a body that “impresses chicks”? Or a brain that can be electronically pulled back from extreme depression? Computer experts of today think that the day will be coming when human cyborgs will be possible?

Two computer-savvy medical students, who noted they were not doctors, gave the presentation at the Defcon hacker conference on Saturday. Christian “Quaddi” Dameff and Jeff “Replicant” Tully (pictured below right and at bottom) said that the day is not so distant when we will be able to “mod” our organic bodies with inorganic mechanical and electronic materials that enhance our augment our basic abilities. They refer to the coming era of human augmentation as “transhumanism.” The subject, which they illustrated with the above picture of actress Megan Fox of Transformers fame, is a controversial one that brings up questions of ethics of technologists who can make the worlds of sci-fi movies such as Blade Runner, where “replicant” cyborgs imitate humans, come to life.

Human enhancement has had a long history, since study of human prosthetics began in the 1500s. The first artificial heart was surgically inserted into a human in 1982.Gene therapy augmentations began in 1990. The first 3D nano structure was created in 1991. In the 1990s, microprocessor-controlled knees arrived.By 2008, the Olympic Committee had to consider and reject a race entrant who had artificial legs.

Drugs such as Adderal can be used to enhance human concentration and treat conditions such as attention deficit disorder. But the potential for abuse is huge. And if you consider the idea that the “mods” in our bodies will be hackable, it’s important to think about all the

Nanobots are more conceptual, though they have taken baby steps in the lab, Tully said. In the not so different future, doctors will be able to create artificial legs that are more efficient at kinetic energy use and are therefore better than the real thing.But the value of a mod has to outweigh the pain the occurs when putting it in. In 2004, a Verichip ID was approved by the FDA to be put into the human body was a radio frequency identification chip. The RFID chip had to be pulled off the market.

“You’ll be able to jump feet,” Dameff (pictured below, left) said. “Will you want to replace your legs to do that?”

Gene therapy in the future will let us “change who we are as a species and rewrite our genetic code,” Tully said.

Over time, more “bio-compatible” materials will be created that the body won’t try to reject, Tully said. These things include titanium chromium, nickel and other kinds of metals. Polymers include polyethylene and others. Infections can be very dangerous.

“What we want to avoid is unleashing the immune system on our mod,” Dameff said.

Just putting something in your body is not simple. The body can reject foreign bodies with great efficiency.  You have to be able to insert the mod in the right location.

“The harder it is to put in a mod, the harder it is to remove,” Dameff said. “Some mods you’ll never be able to take out.”

Putting electrodes in your ears can improve hearing. Cavities like the middle ear can more easily accommodate foreign bodies like cochlear implants, which restore hearing in deaf people. (The first surgery was done in 1984).A microphone picks up sound, filters it, sends the signal over FM radio to the transmission coil and that is sent to the brain.

Putting mods below the skin is relatively easy. But putting things in the thoracic or abdominal areas are more serious.

Connecting a mod to the brain is “one of the most difficult tasks ahead in human augmentation,” Tully said. Modders also have to figure out how to get electrical power to a mod via batteries.

“On top of that all, we know it’s going to be really expensive,” Dameff said.

A pacemaker or hip replacement costs more than $22,000. Lowering costs through open standards and open source remains mportant. Some of the work on this subject has been explored by Humanity Plus and the Singularity Institute.

[Image credits: cyborg Megan Fox; Dean Takahashi]

Filed under: VentureBeat

Raspberry Pi, the $25 Linux PC that fits in your hand and runs off AA batteries, is finally shipping in bulk today. One of the most amazing things about this little baby is the case mods: innovative, interesting cases that hobbyists and tinkerers are creating for the tiny credit-card-sized computer.

Here are a few that we’ve found that would make you the coolest computer user since Linus Torvalds created Linux.

The cigarette computer

Alas, this case already sold on eBay. But it was made from recycled materials (!) and included a special “foil backed paper lining” which may or may not “stop your weirdly small computer from bursting in to flames.”

Suggestion: don’t give this to your smoker friends.

The Lego computer

Not everyone can say they have a computer built by a 12-year-old kid.

Biz is a young German girl with mad computer skillz and serious Lego talent.

She’s even provided the instructions so that you can make your Raspberry Pi computer actually … look … like … a Raspberry.

Far, far too cool.

Going very, very pro

If lego is not your style and the cigarette case is just a little too James Dean … you can hardly beat this Apple-esque case by Marco Alici.

Alici made this virtual prototype with design tools Blender and Yafaray, and is getting a prototype 3D-printed by Shapeways … after which he intends to make it available to others.

Alcia is an Italian design engineer, and it shows.

All fruity colors of the rainbow

ModMyPi has come out with a colorful array of cases that users can mix and match.

The case comes in two parts that snap together, and they’re both fully tested and fully shipping … unlike some of the other cases in this gallery.

ModMyPi touts that they are “made of highly robust, drop and splash resistant ABS plastic.”

Not quite (Product) RED

This case, featured by Wired magazine, looks both sleek and functional … even professional.

There’s no cost or ordering information, or any sourcing of the image itself, so it’s possible this image exists only in the mind of Wired designers … and you.

Until you 3D print it, of course.

The original gumdrop iMac see-through version

This case mod by AdaFruit reminds me of the the original iMacs.

But instead of Bondi blue, these are clear as ice, revealing the hardware beneath in all its gorgeous electronic complexity.

The top opens and snaps back into place, and — a bit of a shocker in the case mod world — the ports are actually labelled.

Uber-industrial chic

Looking like a filing cabinet or a mini rack-mounted server, this Built to Spec laser-cut acrylic case looks like serious business.

You can order the components for only $12.50, and the same case is available in translucent purple for a few dollars more.

Some assembly will be required, but it’s an incredibly looking case.

Poetry in wood

This might be the most beautiful of all the cases.

Stephen at Single Lens Reflections hand-crafted this wooden case  from 3 millimeter layers of plywood sandwiched together and trimmed with a scroll saw.

The Pi fits neatly inside the sandwich, and the ports peek out the sides. This case makes the Pi almost look like a miniaturized concert grand piano.

Honorable mention: ugly but geektastic

This is ugly but it is also undeniably cool: modding the brains of the PC right into its fingers, in a sense.

Ben Heck took a Raspberry Pi home from a Maker Faire and decided to create this: an all-in-one computer (well, minus the screen).

More details on how to do it here.

Filed under: dev, Entrepreneur, offBeat, VentureBeat

You’ve probably seen wireless chargers like the Powermat before, but they require you to put a big, bulky case on your phone in order to work. YouTube user tanv28 shows us how to put the necessary parts inside your phone, so you can do away with the case entirely. More »

We’ve shown you how to create a streaming, motion-detecting surveillance system with a few webcams, but if you want to watch the outside of your house, you’re going to be running a lot of cable. Redditor cheapguitar came up with this clever mod for your outdoor cameras, which connects them via Wi-Fi and charges them with solar power. More »

Although Apple seems to want to forget all about that sad, dark time when their logo featured all the colors of the rainbow, this iPhone mod – really an aluminium back plate – will bring those memories rushing back. You can swap out the plate simply by unscrewing the two small screws at the bottom of your phone and a four bucks more gets you a glowing, translucent rainbow logo.

Sure it’s not as cool as the transparent mod I saw in China a few months ago, but if you want some real old school styling this may be a good choice.

Product Page via MICGadget

Despite phones with oversized screens, YouTube still doesn’t allow for HD playback on Android. Thankfully, modder theos0o has created an alternate version of YouTube that enables HD playback, even over 3G. More »

Despite phones with oversized screens, YouTube still doesn’t allow for HD playback on Android. Thankfully, modder theos0o has created an alternate version of YouTube that enables HD playback, even over 3G. More »

When the Droid Razr Maxx first arrived I was filled with mixed emotions. On the one hand, I was truly excited that Motorola found a way to make the Razr a plausible option — the original battery life on that thing is atrocious. On the other hand, I felt bad for the folks who went out and bought a Razr only to have an (almost) identical device with twice the battery life land a couple months later.

But it turns out there may be a solution for you Razr owners after all. A senior member over at the XDA Developers forum has figured a way to slap a Razr Maxx battery and battery door onto the Razr, significantly improving battery life. But be warned, this is a rather dangerous mod with potentially devastating consequences, so do plenty of reading before you move forward and proceed with caution.

According to Wardo5757, the wizard who discovered this, putting the Maxx battery into the Razr leaves a little gap where the SIM card door and cover are. Both the Razr and the Razr Maxx are meant to have splash proof builds and be generally more rugged than other high-end smartphones, but after the mod chances are you’ll need to be a bit more careful around water and dust.

But the pros seem to far outweigh the cons. In my review, I found that the Razr Maxx lasted eight hours and fifteen minutes compared to just four and a half hours with the Razr. That’s almost twice the battery life.

More images and access to Wardo5757 can be found here. And if you decide to try it let us know how it goes, or if there’s anything else we should know.

Happy tinkering, everyone.

When Siri was announced strictly for the iPhone 4S, the mod community likely took that as a challenge. Before long, the service had been hacked and shortly thereafter ported to a number of potentially compatible devices.

The problem, of course, is that Apple gets to decide what devices are compatible, not the users. So they’ve taken steps to undo the work that hackers and jailbreakers have done to bring Siri to older iOS devices. Today brings a new volley, though it’s only a matter of time before it too is circumvented.

Spire, the jailbreak-related Siri porting tool for non-4S devices, has been disabled by an update from Apple that adds an extra requirement to the Siri authentication process. A new “SetActivationToken” plist file prevents the current hack from functioning correctly. Well, that’s it, everybody go home, Siri is safe from interlopers.

In fact, it has been pointed out that a little deep file management fixes the problem — not a fix a casual user would do, but few casual users will have gone through with the non-trivial Spire install process to begin with. Chances are a small fix will be made available and then a more thorough one will hit when 5.1 hits.

Apple, in the meantime, will continue to desultorily fight back. Their rationale for not supporting older devices isn’t really clear, but it probably doesn’t have anything to do with the older devices being unable to perform the tasks Siri does on-device. Commentators seem to agree that it was a combination of marketing and an inability to scale to support the whole iOS population. That would explain why their work to disrupt non-4S Siri devices has been something less than intense. A hundred thousand jailbreakers won’t knock over the servers, but 50 million iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches would be sure to.

We talk about coffee a lot at Lifehacker, and most of us are pretty serious about making sure we get at least one cup in the morning. If you’re serious about your morning brew—enough that you want to make sure it’s on the way as soon as you wake in the morning (and you’re a little on the lazy side), this DIY remote-operated coffee machine is the perfect hack for you. More »