Body Hacking: Thoughts Regarding My Magnet Implant

Body modification? Pacemaker here.<p>Every six months I have to go in for a tuneup, a wireless data dump &#38; service testing. Having having one's heart slowed to sub-40bpm via a few taps on a screen is...odd. Printed report tells assorted stories of daily activity periods, odd events, heart rate hitting programmed thresholds, etc. There have been some confluence of proximity &#38; programming causing twitching under some circumstances (couldn't sleep on my left side for a year due to a lead pressing on &#38; convulsing diaphragm) which were fixed completely thru software settings. Have a minimum threshold programmed in, and if it's set too high (say, 60bpm) and I relax deeply can feel it kicking in with "go faster!"<p>Proved quite useful a couple weeks back. Suffered a random onset of aortic flutter (can happen to anyone, just sorta happens), where a natural short-circuit in the beat-signal nerves sent the heart rate up to 349bpm (neatly documented on the printed data dump). For most people, this means a very scary and tense race to the emergency room, with AED paddles &#38; drugs to bring it down until the problem can be surgically eliminated. My pacemaker hit the brakes at 150bpm, leaving me functional to wander in to the ER at my convenience; there, a tech was brought in to set up a more aggressive flutter-control program (70-100bpm more aware of actual physical needs). That kept things manageable until the drive-thru heart surgery to fix the problem (1 hour to send a probe up a vein to find &#38; burn out the short, 3 hours rest, then discharged). Wasn't what the pacer was installed to handle (ventricular resynchronization), but the "while we're installing this, let's add a wire and program in some other someday-useful stuff" has indeed proven useful.<p>Other body modification is a mechanical heart valve. I tick. I've been confused with clocks.<p>Yes, MRIs are completely out of the question now. Work near a small one and get nervous walking by the door.<p>OK, so these weren't exactly voluntary. Choice aside, being a cyborg does make for interesting experiences &#38; conversations.<p>ETA: BTW, not looking forward to replacing the battery. At least the device has been saying the battery will last another four years - for the last four years.

It's a cool idea, but let's not give short shrift to the MRI downside. MRIs are a big deal in today's medical world. Not being able to get one, depending on circumstances, can present anything from a mild inconvenience to a significant challenge. Especially if it's because of some piece of metal you elected to have implanted.<p>I type these words with a (non-elective) series of metal prostheses implanted in my hand and wrist. Luckily, I don't set off metal detectors unless they're turned to extremely high sensitivities. But MRIs are out. I don't want to get into TMI detail, but let's just say that I have an ongoing medical condition that makes the inability to get MRIs a big setback.<p>Tread carefully with this stuff. Look before you leap.

If you'd like a lower effort version: I glued a tiny, but powerful, magnet to my fingernail and then coated it with a few layers of nail polish.<p>It looked more than a little flashy, and it provided less sensation than it would've implanted, but it worked surprisingly well.

Fascinating article. Speaking as someone who as worked around MRIs, I think the author underestimates the risk of being put in an MRI machine. It would be worth carrying a wallet card or wrist band noting that he has an implant (though emergency MRIs are relatively uncommon).<p>It's also worth noting that the fascial compartments of the hand can make infections tough to treat, and compartment syndrome can occasionally lead to serious problems requiring finger amputations.<p>Regardless, it's an interesting experiment that I'm glad someone who wasn't me performed.

I don't know that I would want an implant, but I'd like to try a haptic compass. You strap it on and it gives you a physical sensation of where north is, as if you were a bird with magnetoception.<p>Wire article on haptic compasses: <a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.04/esp.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.04/esp.html</a>

I hope technology such as this can help make the world of body modification a little more palatable to average folk.<p>The vast majority of people go only as far as some piercings and maybe a tattoo. We need to get away from the absurdity of contemporary body mod culture: tooth sharpening, scarification, branding, horn implants, sclera tattoos, gauging, suspension, tongue bifurcation, lip discs, genital modifications…it’s <i>too much</i>.<p>That kind of modification is a dead-end because it doesn’t fulfill its nominally transhumanist goals. But regular people could warm up to things like magnets and RFID tags, or, say, internal sensors to let you know of impending health problems. That sort of body modification provides <i>actual value</i> in the form of information that would otherwise be unavailable or inconvenient to obtain. I think that’s where we’re headed in the next couple of decades.

&#62; I also figure that if I’m ever incapacitated and put in an MRI machine without the ability to give the doctor any forewarning, a tiny magnet getting ripped out of my finger will be the least of my concerns.<p>It might be a rather bigger concern for the owner of the MRI though...

I've had two tiny disc magnet implants in two fingers for over three years now. I originally had it implanted as part of an idea for a novel man-machine interface I came up with for my Master's degree research project at the Uni of Reading (UK).<p>The early reports of electrical fields inducing sensations had intrigued me, so I set out to explore the possibility of controlling the magnet with an external electromagnet, which in my final design was a simple coil ring worn around the finger, and use it as a sensory substitution man-machine interface. After measuring the frequency response, sensitivity etc characteristics, I finally put it into a practical application demo by using the interface to couple an ultrasonic ranger and a mobile phone to myself. The ultrasonic ranger was used to feed the distance information and I learnt pretty quickly to judge distances and move about with my eyes closed. In the phone scenario, I encoded characters as Morse Code pulses and could "read" the incoming text messages. My morse skills weren't that good but it worked!<p>The internalization of the sensory information, with the magnet being inside the body, made a qualitative subjective difference as opposed to simply having a magnet glued to the finger.<p>There's a bit of info on this and pictures/xrays on my blog: <a href="http://www.jawish.org/blog/plugin/tag/smii" rel="nofollow">http://www.jawish.org/blog/plugin/tag/smii</a>. The details on the interface is on the paper we published: <a href="http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=5898141" rel="nofollow">http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=5898...</a><p>My best experience with real world magnetic fields? Wires. It was mind blowing to be able to feel the field around a wire which we usually think nothing of. The power cable to the electric heater generated a field I could "touch" about 4-5 inches away! What does touching it feel like? Like touching a stream of air. :)

&#62; While a magnet implant doesn’t technically count as a “sixth sense” (it’s more of an extension of our existing sense of touch), the way that the body internalizes these tiny magnetic vibrations feels truly foreign.<p>Let's just start by dispelling the myth that there are "five senses", and then we can agree that this does provide an additional sense. The inner ear is an orientation sensor and orientation is clearly a sense, therefore there are more than "five senses".

I have an rfid implant, but I haven't found any real uses for it. Of course I thought about what I was was going to do with it before I got the implant, and had some ideas and got the implant thinking that tinkering with applications would shine new light, but in the end it's quite lackluster to have one. It's also strange how exotic it seems to have one when you don't have it, and how pedestrian it feels when you actually have it.<p>I sort of read that same feeling between the lines of the article. It's a bit of a novelty when you first get it, but after a while it's not all that special.

Related: Nokia has some patent application for a magnetic tattoo and/or skin patch that would provide haptic feedback from a magnetic field projected by your phone: <a href="http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&#38;Sect2=HITOFF&#38;p=1&#38;u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&#38;r=10&#38;f=G&#38;l=50&#38;co1=AND&#38;d=PG01&#38;s1=Nokia.AS.&#38;OS=AN/Nokia&#38;RS=AN/Nokia?fvrewsd" rel="nofollow">http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&#38;Se...</a><p>Not sure how they would shield from outside interference/have the field coming from your pocket reach your hand in all situations though.

Here's Quinn Norton's talk at 23C3 (five years ago) about functional body modification, including her personal experience &#38; some of the problems with embedded magnets: warning it's a little graphic <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voA7Uz7uABE" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voA7Uz7uABE</a> There's a text-and-picture summary here if you don't want to watch the video, also with graphic photos: <a href="http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2007/01/quinn-norton-on.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2007/01/quinn-...</a>

I got mine only two weeks ago, and I'm looking forward to exploring that new "sense".<p>I was kinda surprised the most frequently asked question when ppl heard about it – and the one that came pretty unexpected for me – was "why?!".<p>thanks for the article!

Note: OnSwipe damaged site, and adding ?onswipe_ redirect=never goes into a redirect loop.

I've followed magnetic implants for a while, always considering getting my own, as well as an RFID implant. I'm also a fan of BMEZine and there can be quite a few overlaying interests in the two communities. Whiles its not as good as it used to be when Shannon (guy mentioned in OP's article) was editor, I suggest people subscribe if they're interested in such things.

I design toys that use magnets.. I end up carving my own tools out of wood so I can epoxy them in proper places.<p>They are super annoying to make stay where you want them.. I would go crazy if I had one inside me.

Man, the last time I read about these was back during the original trials when it was still pretty finicky. Feeling seriously tempted now.

I never heard of this before, but I want one so bad right now. However, the MRI thing is a real deal-break for me... oh well :(

I found these quite interesting, but I'd never get one implanted: using small screwdrivers and wrenches would be a pain, it affects the phone's magnetometer and you have to be careful not to cut your finger or when lifting anything heavy (and using all your fingers' strength)...

I thought something that was cooler (and less permanent) was the feelspace belt: it has a compass module and a bunch of of vibrating motors, so you can always 'feel' magnetic north<p><a href="http://feelspace.cogsci.uni-osnabrueck.de/" rel="nofollow">http://feelspace.cogsci.uni-osnabrueck.de/</a>

Looks like a pretty simple device. Now, when can we start seeing more improvements (particularly use/assembly related) on open source EEGs? I'm far more interested in monitoring my brain activity outside of my psychologist's office. Odd signal activity and all that...

I was thinking about getting this done, but then I realized that recently I've been doing so much metal machining work, that the concept of picking up metal filings constantly with my finger just sounds painful.

Contacted Steve Haworth today to arrange an appointment to get one implanted. Been wanting one for a few years now, this article tipped the scales.

Is this magnet powerful enough to damage magnetic media (HDDs, Tapes, etc)?

what happens if you actually operate one of those cloth retail super magnets de-taggers? does your hand get pulled away or inside it?

Obligatory: Magneto