Steve Mann

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Self-portrait of Mann in 1981 with wearable computing apparatus.
Self-portrait of Mann in 1981 with wearable computing apparatus.

Steve Mann is a tenured professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto.

Contents

[edit] Publications

Mann is author of more than 200 publications, including a textbook on electric eyeglasses and a popular culture book on day-to-day cyborg living.

[edit] Education

Mann holds degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT (PhD in Media Arts and Sciences '97) and McMaster University, where he was also inducted into the McMaster University Alumni Hall of Fame, Alumni Gallery, 2004, in recognition of his career as an inventor and teacher. While at MIT he was one of the founding members of the Wearable Computers group in the Media Lab [1]. In 2004 he was named the recipient of the 2004 Leonardo Award for Excellence for his article "Existential Technology," published in Leonardo 36:1. [2]

[edit] Ideas and Inventions

  • Chirplet transform, 1991: Mann was the first to propose and reduce to practice a signal representation based on a family of chirp signals, each associated with a coefficient, in a generalization of the wavelet transform that is now referred to as the chirplet transform.
  • Video Orbits, 1993: Mann was the first to produce an algorithm for automatically combining multiple pictures of the same subject matter, using algebraic projective geometry, to "stitch together" images using automatically estimated perspective correction. This is called the "Video Orbits" algorithm. [3]
  • Comparametric Equations, 1993: Mann was the first to propose and implement an algorithm to estimate a camera's response function from a plurality of differently exposed images of the same subject matter. He was also the first to propose and implement an algorithm to automatically extend dynamic range in an image by combining multiple differently exposed pictures of the same subject matter. [4].
  • Hydraulophone: Mann invented a musical instrument that uses pressurized hydraulic fluid, such as water, to make sound. The instrument is played by placing the fingers in direct contact with the sound-producing hydraulic fluid, thus giving the musician a high degree of control over the musical expression in the sound. [5]]
  • Sousveillance and CyborGLOGGING

Mann also works in the fields of computer-mediated reality. He is a strong advocate of privacy rights, for which work he was an award recipient of the Chalmers Foundation in the fine arts. His work also extends to the area of sousveillance (a term he coined for "inverse surveillance"). Mann and one of his PhD students, James Fung, together with some of his other students, have been building a cyborg community around the CyborGLOGGING concept [6].

  • Mann, together with Professor Ian Kerr at the University of Ottawa, have written extensively on surveillance, sousveillance, and equiveillance. "Sousveillance", a term coined by Mann, along with the concepts that he and Kerr have developed around these ideas, have created a new dialog for cyborg technologies, as well as related personal information gathering technologies like camera phones.
  • Joi Ito, a leading researcher in moblogging, credits Mann with having initiated the moblogging movement by creating a system for transmission of realtime pictures, video, and text. In particular, from 1994 to 1996, Mann continuously transmitted his life's experiences, in real time, to his website for others to experience, interact with, and respond to. [7]. His CyborGLOGS ('glogs), such as the spontaneous reporting of news as everday experience, [8], were an early predecessor of 'blogs and the concept of blogging, and earlier than that, his pre-internet-era live streaming of personal documentary and cyborg communities defined cyborglogging as a new form of social networking.

[edit] Mann as Cyborg

NOW, The Globe and Mail, National Post, and Toronto Life have all described him as "the world's first cyborg", from his early work with wireless wearable webcams (see CyborgLog). Dr Mann has a number of publications, including the book Cyborg: Digital Destiny... and his textbook Intellilgent Image Processing describing his early adoption of an alterative life style with significant and interesting ideas.

While some describe him as the founder of the field of wearable computing based on his early work in personal imaging, there is controversy surrounding the exact definition of wearable computing, and whether any one person can be considered to have invented it. For example, wearable computer imaging systems were described, hypothetically (not actually reduced to practice) by Vannevar Bush in his essay "As We May Think" in the Atlantic Monthly in July 1945. Wearable devices for timing the trajectory of the balls on a roulette table were built and used by Ed Thorp and Claude Shannon who first published their work in 1966, but it is uncertain whether these devices could be considered computers, in the modern-day interpretation of a computer as a general purpose device (any more than one might consider a windup wristwatch to be a computer, i.e. although it computes and displays time, what makes something really a computer is its generality of purpose). Likewise, an abacus worn around the neck on a string could be called a wearable computer, but it's not quite in the spirit of Mann's idea of a general purpose device worn during all waking moments. Predecessors like the wristwatch, the shoe-based gambling timers, etc., were used for computation of specific tasks, whereas Mann's invention was a general-purpose field programmable computer inserted into the visual reality stream of all day-to-day tasks.

[edit] Anonequity project (Mann, Kerr, and others)

He was the subject of a widely-publicized post-9/11 incident where Canadian airport security forcibly removed many of his wearable devices. As a result of this incident, Mann consulted with a number of researchers including Canada Research Chair in Ethics, Law & Technology, University of Ottawa, who now teaches a course on "Cyborg Law" using Mann's book [9]. Mann, together with Kerr (Canada Research Chair in Ethics and Law at University of Ottawa), and others, successfully started an SSHRC-funded project to study the Ethics, Law & Technology of anonymity, authentication, surveillance, and sousveillance, in addition to issues related to cyborg-law. The anonequity project is ongoing, and collaborator Kerr has also researched and lectured widely on implantable technologies.

In 2002-03-14, Mann received world-wide news attention when The New York Times [10] (requires free signup incl. email address) reported on an incident in which he was detained by security personnel at St. John's International Airport in Newfoundland, Canada while preparing to board an Air Canada flight to Toronto. The article reported that Mann was strip-searched and his electronic implants were forcibly removed, disorienting him sufficiently to necessitate that he use a wheelchair. At the time, Mann's lawyer reportedly estimated the value of the lost equipment at $56,800 [11], and Mann has claimed that doctors advised him that the separation from his implants (some of which he had lived with for many years) could lead to brain damage. [12] The effects of separation from long-term adaptation are currently being researched, using this result as a case study, along with other similar results, in addition to research on developing better technology for implantable interfaces that is less detectable, and uses wireless connections to the body worn computer. After the incident, Mann also became a test subject for researchers developing new brain imaging methodologies based on FMRI. Technology philosopher Paul Virilio reported on Mann's inventions and work, as well as this incident, in his book Crepuscular Dawn excerpt.

Self-portraits of Mann with wearable-computing gear from 1980s to 1990s.
Self-portraits of Mann with wearable-computing gear from 1980s to 1990s.

[edit] Movie documentary

In 2001, Peter Lynch made a movie, Cyberman, about Mann's life and inventions.

[edit] Similar Research

Other researchers with similar areas of interest include Raymond Kurzweil, Thad Starner, and Eduardo Kac, the world's first person to have an identity microchip implanted (which Kac did as an art performance to initiate inquiry and philosophical debate -- quite different from the reasons for which Kevin Warwick later had an identity microchip implanted).

[edit] Books

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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