Whats that thing sticking out of your head? a woman asks the man with a serpentine antenna between his eyes.

Neil Harbisson turns, parts his bowl-cut blond locks, and curves the antenna toward the buttinsky. Its a way to hear color, he says.

Whats it connected to? she asks.

Harbisson looks up at her with smiling, cobalt eyes. My brain.

The North Sense briefly vibrates when the wearer turns to face north.

Courtesy North Sense

At an outdoor cafe at L.A.s Original Farmers Market, passersby are constantly checking out Harbisson, 34, and his partner, Moon Ribas, 31. In her left arm, she has a Bluetooth implant designed to analyze the earths seismic movements. Whats it feel like? Two heartbeats, she says.

Harbisson, whose U.K. passport shows hes the first legally recognized cyborg, was born colorblind. He designed his antennawhich translates colors into one of 360 musical tones hes memorizedback in 2003 with help from a cyberneticist. At first, he connected it to headphones and a laptop. Eventually, he persuaded a surgeon to drill into his skull, implant a chip, and fuse the antenna to his occipital bone.

The couple say merging technology with their bodies has created new senses. We are transspecies, says Ribas, whose three-year-old seismic implant vibrates at different intensities based on data from online seismographs. As with other biohackers, their claimshe says my color registers as an F sharp, for exampleare difficult to verify. But their London startup, Cyborg Nest, is manufacturing DIY kits meant to bring their transhumanism closer to the mainstream.

CEO Babitz was fitted with one in December and compares the experience to a second childhood.

Courtesy North Sense

The first kit, the North Sense, is essentially a $425 wearable implant. It does one simple thing, says co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Liviu Babitz, who was fitted with one in December. A short vibration every time youre facing north. That doesnt sound like an advantage worth body modification, but Babitz likens the experience to a second childhood. I remember my son discovering things as his senses developed and the look in his eyes when it happened, he says. I feel the same.

The sensor itself, a compass chip that detects magnetic fields, is easy to remove. The tough part is installing two pocket-size titanium barbells onto the wearers chest, like a piercing. When the skin heals, typically after a month or two, the silicone-coated North Sense slides onto the implant. Babitz says the sensor is designed to allow the free flow of air and avoid skin irritation, and its waterproof. Its certainly nowhere near as conspicuous as Harbissons antenna, though it goes a step beyond less invasive wearable devices, such as the ankle kit from startup North Paw that also vibrates when facing magnetic north.

Cyborg Nest, launched in 2015 with about $200,000 in pooled funds, began shipping North Senses in February. The company says about 1,000 people have ordered one. (Babitz verifies their identities to make sure theyre adults.) The Romanian, who used to work for the human-rights group Videre Est Credere getting cameras and other technology to oppressed communities to expose government abuses, admits his wife and friends have been skeptical. Then again, he says, laughing, What I did before I started this was no less crazy.

The most important business stories of the day.

Get Bloomberg's daily newsletter.

Journalist Mark OConnell, who wrote To Be a Machine, a book about the transhumanist movement, isnt convinced that the niche use for the North Sense will appeal to a mass audience. I dont see it taking it off, he says. Then again, tattoos are everywhere now.

Babitz declined to discuss Cyborg Nests next projects, but Harbisson and Ribas have a wish list: a Bluetooth tooth for silent communication; a way to detect pollution; eyes in the back of the head. The big question, Harbisson says, is how to adjust a persons mental perspective to accept those kinds of inputs. The body isnt the focus, he says. Modifying our minds is what really changed us.

The bottom line: Cyborg Nest has sold about 1,000 DIY implants that vibrate when a wearer faces north, retraining their sensory comprehension.

View original post here:

This $425 DIY Implant Will Make You a Cyborg - Bloomberg - Bloomberg