About our guests
Introduction
This website has been funded by the British Council New Zealand and developed by the e-learning team of CWA New Media to support a video conference held between Professor Kevin Warwick and the University of Waikato.
Internationally renowned robotics and cybernetics expert, Professor Kevin Warwick was a guest at the International Science Festival in July 2004. Kevin’s visit to New Zealand was supported by the British Council New Zealand.
British Council New Zealand promotes the sharing of knowledge and information, creating opportunities for, and contributing to, the development of people and organisations at all levels. Their work covers many activities, but focuses particularly on education and training, the arts and science. They aim to build lasting relationships between the UK and New Zealand.
About Kevin Warwick
Professor Kevin Warwick
Kevin Warwick is Professor of Cybernetics at the University of Reading, and is involved in Readings Cybernetic Intelligence Research Group. He has devoted all of his academic life to the study of robotics, cybernetics and the controversial relationship between man and machine. He has published over 300 academic papers and a number of popular science books but is best known for the controversial research he has performed on himself.
In 1998, Kevin Warwick shocked the international scientific community and made world headlines, turning himself into the world’s first cybernetic man by having a transponder surgically implanted into his arm. The aim of this controversial experiment was to determine whether information could be transmitted to and from an implant. The experiment was a success and prompted further research and another set of experiments on himself in 2002 where neurosurgeons created a link between Kevin’s nervous system and a computer, which earned him a mention in the Guinness Book of Records.
This was followed by another world first when a similar transponder was implanted into his wife in order to explore the possibilities of direct nervous system to nervous system communication.
Photos
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Professor Kevin Warwick with a robot |
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Kevin having a microchip implanted into his nervous system |
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Kevin using his neural signals to drive a wheelchair around |
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Kevin and Irena link their two nervous systems together |
Links
Professor Kevin Warwick
Kevin Warwick’s personal website provides information on the background of his career, the projects he has worked on, publications, achievements, faq, and includes a photo gallery.
http://www.kevinwarwick.com
School of Systems Engineering: Department of Cybernetics
Professor Warwick’s homepage in the Cybernetics Department at Reading University. This site lists his research projects, publications and provides links to them.
http://www.cyber.rdg.ac.uk/people/K.Warwick.htm
Cyborg 1.0
An article about Kevin Warwick in Wired Magazine describing how in August 1998, a silicon chip was implanted in his arm, allowing a computer to monitor his movements. It goes on to explain his plans for further experiments with implanting chips into his body.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.02/warwick.html
Life: Mr and Mrs Cyborg
An article describing Kevin’s research projects, focusing on the linking of his nervous system with his wifes.
http://www.culturelab-uk.com/site/templates/issue1/archive_item_culturelab.asp?ID=98
The Man in the Mind of the Machine
An interview with Kevin Warwick in Fontwheeldrive.com by Roy Christopher where Kevin talks about future possibilities of his research in society.
http://frontwheeldrive.com/kevin_warwick.html
