Neil Harbisson, Eye-Borg wearer and student at Dartington College of Art: “I was in a lecture given by Adam Montandon in Dartington college and he was talking about cybernetics and cyborgs and how new technology can change the way we perceive the world and, when he finished and asked him if he thought it would be possible to create something so that I could perceive colour in some way and he said ‘Sure’, and we began a project.”

Guide Voice: What Adam created was the “Eye-Borg” – a means of transferring colours into a series of audible tones.

Adam Montandon, Director of Digital Futures, HMC Interactive and Guest Lecturer in Digital Arts, Dartington College of Art – “How the Eye-Borg system works is it uses a small, digital head mounted camera that takes in all the colout information directly in front of it and feeds it into a computer that you can wear in a backpack, it can be any normal laptop computer, and the laptop runs on special software that slows down the light waves and turns them into soundwaves. Those soundwaves then come out of the headphones here.”

Med. wide NH painting – audio tones from Eye-Borg can be heard
Over shoulder shot of painting – audio tones from Eye-Borg can be heard

Profile of NH painting – audio tones from Eye-Borg can be heard
c.u. paints held in hand – audio tones from Eye-Borg can be heard

Guide Voice: The Eye-Borg analyses the light waves it received and transposes these into sound waves. So red, which is a low colour frequency, is heard as a low tone; violet, at the other end of the spectrum, would sound as a high tone. This gives Neil his new found perception of colour and Adam is confident that he can adapt his invention to help others.

Adam Montandon – “The wider applications of the Eye-Borg are almost limitless. It’s not just for people with visual impairments; it could even be used for people with complete blindness. And also a lot of musicians, a lot of artists, a lot of engineers are really interested in a project that combines visual and audio experience as one new perception. Everybody uses their eyes or their ears in their day to day job, and this can really help to bring a closer connection between the two.”

MSc Digital Futures
(now incorporated into MSc Digital Art and Technology)

The year I studied for my Masters was an incredibly busy year but a very successful one. At the same time as doing the course, along with three other students from my first degree course, I set up my own digital production company which has gone from strength to strength winning lots of awards.

The company recently won its first major international award for the Weller Astronomy Galleries installation at the Royal Observatory, beating off competition from thousands of other companies from 25 countries.

HMC Interactive creates interactive multimedia products for a wide range of industries, including Chocolate Rain for Cadbury and Digital Grass for the BBC. Our latest project has been to create interactive experiences for the visitor centre at Torquay’s Living Coasts. These include a touch screen penguin training facility which allows people to nurture, grow and teach penguins a survival skill.

The Masters course helped me to be daring and risk taking, giving me confidence to believe in my own creativity. In my work with HMC Interactive, our clients always ask us for impossible things that don’t exist, and yet we find a way of making that fantasy a reality. It really is the most interesting job in the world.

“It really is the most interesting job in the world”

This is my story about coming to university

When I came to an open day at the University I saw one of the lecturers presenting some of the great games that final year students had created. When I saw them I thought, “I’d love to make something like that.” Four years later I was running my own software development company and winning countless awards.

After graduation I was very busy. I won the Submerge Award with three other students for creating an online game and, together, we worked really hard to build HMC Interactive, an award winning software development company. HMC Interactive creates interactive multimedia products for a wide range of industries from education to entertainment and beyond, turning fantasy into reality. It’s great fun building theme parks and attractions all over the world. It’s never boring and I love it!

For one of our American clients we created audio-reactive disability rooms for children with autism and cerebral palsy. It uses high-powered hidden microphones to turn children’s sounds into a world of colours and light. We worked with leading American speech therapists to create it and we are hoping to bring it to the UK soon.

Currently, I am working on the Space Gallery at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, making huge digital rooms full of interactive starscapes from the Hubble telescope. We are also designing new interactive playspaces for the Cadbury World theme park in Birmingham. “Purple Planet” is a realm of mirrors, wall-sized screens, hidden cameras, motion detectors and interactive projections that react when you touch them or move your body. They form a series of mind-stretching virtual exhibits including such features as chocolate rain falling from the sky and a photo booth that moulds people into cyber chocolate sculptures.

“It’s great fun building theme parks and attractions all over the world. I love it!”

Where did the idea come from?
The Twofour development team was thinking about fresh approaches to health programming and they came up with the idea of creating a “living autopsy”. It’s great because it’s such a strange concept – the initial reaction is “you can’t do that”. The company’s technology arm, HMC Interactive, is amazingly creative and knew they could, so Stuart Murphy pitched it to Danny Cohen at BBC3.

What’s the full format?
It’s a health show for young people who live lives of excess – whether it’s food, drink, drugs or even sunbeds. They have tests ranging from a full-body MRI scan to blood tests to ones that check lung capacity and brain functions. The results are analysed and an image of their vital organs is created. The participant is then wheeled into an autopsy theatre, lying on a trolley, and the image is projected onto their body. We tell them the functional age of their organs and then a young medic lives with them to support them in changing their lifestyle.

How did it develop?
We worked on the tone. The BBC was clear it didn’t want a lecturing or finger-wagging show. As host, George Lamb lightens the mood, but not by taking the piss.

Any challenges?
We had to make sure the casting was right. You have to care about someone if you’re going to hand over an hour of your time and they need to be very open if they’re going to talk about drinking or using drugs.

What took the most time?
We spent months on the autopsy and the build-up. It’s really dramatic and the last thing we wanted was it to look like a wobbly Crossroads moment. We worked on the lighting, how the participant is wheeled in, the viewing gallery of family and friends and most of all the technology. It was so realistic: the heart is beating and the lungs are inflating. Then there’s an incision and the skin and ribs are pulled back. The participants have to wear a skin-coloured leotard and I was convinced someone would refuse. (Broadcast)

Make My Body Younger is Suns TV Pick

BEST DIGITAL: Make My Body Younger (BBC3, 8pm)

Make My Body Younger is the Sun’s TV Pick for Best Digital show today!

This is a Gillian McKeith-style show but with George Lamb at the helm.

He takes one unhealthy person, in this case club rep Emma.

She has a “living autopsy” which reveals how much damage booze and cigs are doing to her organs.

Then a glamorous live-in lady doctor helps her to ditch the dirty living and clean up her act.

Forget those NHS adverts, any young binge-drinker should be made to watch this, a kind of You Are What You Overeat and Overdrink in which twentysomethings are given “living autopsies”. Take 23-year-old Ibiza rep Emma, who enjoys regular 24-hour drinking sessions and smokes three packs a day. Medical tests offer an insight into the state of her besieged organs and she’s terrified into swearing to a life of quinoa and mint tea. This series will be a wake-up call for any party animal. (The Times)

It seems autopsies are wasted on the dead – club rep Emma is about to undergo what is billed as a “live autopsy” in a bold bid to convince her to change her wicked ways.

While Emma is only 23, her heart and lungs say otherwise as a result of her spending six months of the year partying hard while working in Ibiza and the rest of it chainsmoking, unemployed and bored out of her box on her dad’s sofa.

Just how she manages to fund her 30-a-day habit on six months’ repping salary is, frankly, a mystery.

Regardless, she is forced to don a flesh-coloured unitard as she is strapped to an autopsy table and, while her club rep mates look on, some rather clever special effects show what junk food, fags and idleness have done to her insides.

Then a pretty female trainee GP moves in with Emma to chivvy her into action. Aye, aye, thinks her dad (probably), things are looking up!

Meanwhile, host George Lamb gets into the spirit of things by wearing a suit that makes him look like a 72-year-old undertaker. (Mirror)

Anyone watching Big Brother’s Little Brother? Nah, me neither. It’s just not the same since Dermot O’Leary jumped ship to The X Factor (although after last year’s turgidity, it should be The Zzzzzz Factor). OK, if you haven’t seen the new look Big Brother’s Little Brother, chances are you may be unaware of new male host George Lamb. He can also be seen every Wednesday night presenting new BBC Three series Make My Body Younger.

I know what you’re thinking people, but you’re wrong. This isn’t How To Look Good Naked or Ten Years Younger…but it is the flipside. Young boozers, bingers and party animals get a wake-up call as their over-the-top lifestyle is put under the microscope – literally. This series isn’t concerned with the usual preoccupations of makeover shows (laughter lines, crow’s feet, wrinkles, boob jobs, cellulite et al): the question is, what damage are the subjects doing to their insides?

Using state-of-the-art technology, a ‘living autopsy’ is performed, revealing the real impact that bad food, drink, drugs and cigarettes are having on their organs. In the first part, party girl Emma Sheldon comes under the spotlight. For six months of the year, the 23-year-old is ‘avin’ it large! as a club rep in Ibiza…nuff said. Anyway, it’s all been rough on her body; she lives on a diet of junk food (and it all shows on her face – sorry, but it’s true), she’s been known to put on three stone in just three months, enjoy 24-hour drinking sessions and – wait for this because you’ won’t believe it – Emma also smokes up to two hundred fags a week. Two hundred fags a week!!!! Flippin’ ‘eck Tucker! No need for artificial smoke in Amnesia with Emma around, is there?

Her heart, lungs and skin have taken a real battering (she’s got the lungs of a 45-year-old) and she is diagnosed as clinically obese. Upset by the results, Emma wants to change her ways. But can she? Does she? Ah, now that would be telling, wouldn’t it? Admittedly, Make My Body Younger does feel rather familiar. But the digital technology used to illustrate exactly what’s going on inside the subject’s body is pretty amazing. I’m starting to wonder how old my lungs are now…. (MSN TV Blog)

BBC Three is obviously going all-out to prove its public service credentials at the moment, with the current beauty season in full flow, and now this programme which sort of fits in tangentially to the beauty concept, except in more of an internal way, following in the grand tradition of health series that frighten you into eating better by showing you your innards. And okay, maybe Alesha: Look But Don’t Touch was a bit of a disappointment on Monday, but maybe this will be better?

The rather terrifying concept behind the series is that of a “living autopsy”, which we hope is not quite as alarming as it sounds – some top science-type people perform various tests on hard-partying types to see what damage has been done to their organs by all the smoking, drinking, and suchlike they do on an average night out. They’re then given an equivalent age for their vital bits and are left to come up with ways to stop themselves dying prematurely with the liver of an 89-year-old.

George Lamb is on presenting duties, which might well be an instant turn-off for some, though mercifully there’s no sign of Zezi anywhere (perhaps Timmy Mallett finally tracked her down?). His role appears to be fairly minimal, in that he delivers the initial non-Daz doorstop surprise before the scientists do all the heavy lifting. This week’s episode features 23-year-old club rep Emma who smokes like a chimney and lives on junk food. And best of all, we’re 99% certain that absolutely nobody poos in a box at any point during the health evaluation process. In your face, Gillian McKeith! (Lowculture)

Make My Body Younger
Tonight 8pm, BBC3

Isn’t it nice to see BBC3 controller Danny Cohen powering ahead with his innovative programming and fostering of new talent with this variation on Honey We’re Killing the Kids, fronted by George Lamb of 6Music and Big Brother’s Little Brother? Fat, lazy, chain-smoking, binge-drinking, junk food-addicted holiday rep Emma might be adversely affecting her health and life expectancy with her unsavoury habits. Can an analysis of her body – including the show’s chief gimmick, a “living autopsy” – persuade her to change her ways? Do you care? (Guardian)