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EYE . 3D bioprinted sight augmentation


Following Will.i.am claims on the ethical challenges of advanced bioprinting, MHOX decided to remove confidentiality on a concept the office has been working on in the last year: EYE, a 3d bioprinted sight augmentation.

Latest developments in bioprinting and biohacking let us imagine that in the near future it would be possible to easily print organic, functional body parts, allowing the human to replace defected districts or enhance standard performance.
This project is based on the idea of augmenting the sight sense, increasing the functionalities of the eye with ones currently handled by other body segments or external devices.

EYE (Enhance Your Eye) product range includes three models: EYE HEAL, EYE ENHANCE, EYE ADVANCE.

EYE HEAL replaces standard eye functionality, providing a cure to sight deseases and traumas.
EYE ENHANCE sharpens sight up to 15/10, thanks to its hyper-retina. Moreover, the included visual gland allows the opportunity to aesthetically filter the visual signal. Filters (vintage, black and white, ...) can be activated or changed swallowing EYE pills.
EYE ADVANCE, on top of the other models' offer, provides the ability to record and share the visual experience, thanks to the included gland that supports wi-fi communication. Once activated the wi-fi mode through the EYE connection pill it is possible to connect the EYE like an external camera for several devices.

All the products in the EYE collection can be customized in order to preserve or change retinal morphology and information of the user.

The installation of the EYE augmentations needs a first surgical operation aimed at installing the Deck, the technology that actually connects the eye to the brain. After that, augmented eyes can be easily interchanged by their own users without the need of additional surgery. Besides allowing to use different augmentations in different contexts, this system is suitable for easy hardware upgrade.

All EYE models are 3d bioprinted. 3D bioprinting technologies allow biodesigners to directly print fully functional organ and organisms.
The printer use a special needle that drops different kind of cells needed to recreate the different tissues of the EYE. These cells are contained in a special substance called bio-ink and the printer can switch between different bio-inks to recreate differentiation of tissues. Once the cells are dropped they automatically gather together. Thus, EYEs are completely organic.

EYE is a concept design without any scientific basis beyond the observation of the trends of development in 3d bioprinting and biohacking technologies. EYE aims at increasing awareness regarding what might be possible in a few decades. We design fiction around technological concepts to make them accessible to a higher number of people, since we believe that would eventually lead to increasing investments of energies in research.