The quest for extraordinary vision.  The quest for extraordinary
vision.  The quest to build better people. March 5 2003 6:41 PM
I Spy With My Eagle Eye  The quest for super-vision.  (Continued
from Page 2)  This is when super-vision becomes possible. Thanks
to the camera, there is scarcely any limit on what an implanted
person could see. You could equip the camera with a telephoto or
fisheye lens. The camera could swivel. It could receive infrared
light (the light that you see in night-vision goggles). So an
implantee could see in the dark, or see behind him, or zoom in
on a particularly interesting corner of his visual field. (The
model for all this, I say with embarrassment, is Star Trek: The
Next Generation's Geordi La Forge, the blind character who can
"see" infrared and UV light through his special visor.)  Retinal
implants, too, could serve as cyborg eyes, though they wouldn't
be as sophisticated since they depend on normal light. But you
could make a retinal implant in which the sensors respond to a