Meet the Worlds first Cyborg, Neil Harbisson

Neil Harbisson was colorblind from birth. But he’d always wished to be able to experience colors.

By designing a gadget that is implanted in the brain, he was able to realize his ambition and become Worlds first Cyborg. It consists of a camera that converts colors into 360 sound waves and sends them straight to Neil’s brain, as well as a 1 kg wearable computer and a software chip inserted in his skin.

Harbisson can also see infrared and ultraviolet rays, in addition to the ordinary optical radiation range. Neil Harbisson can “see” in ultraviolet light thanks to an antenna-like implant that enhances his light perception and provides him with super-senses.

One of these persons is Neil Harbisson, 33. Achromatopsia, or full-color blindness, was a condition that the artist was born with. Far from being a handicap, Harbisson sees his natural worldview as a strength, but he wishes he could comprehend different aspects of sight.

Worlds first Cyborg has been able to “hear” visible and invisible wavelengths of light for the past 13 years. Different wavelengths are translated into vibrations on his skull by an antenna-like sensor implanted in his head, which he hears as sound.