It was actually it was the Apple advert that gave me the idea - the one with the skater(?) wearing their iPod, so tomorrow I am off to the hospital for some über geeky body modification - having my iPod Shuffle implanted in my upper arm. It took some effort to find and convince someone wiling to carry out the work, but a little persistence paid off.

The area of most concern was (unsurprisingly) the sighting of the usb and jack for the headphones. We eventually decided route the wires up the arm, behind the clavicle and then paralleling the spine to the sockets which will go just behind my left ear. This should allow easy connection while minimizing the amount of surgery to the skull. The iPod itself will simply me inserted just below the skin (a subcutaneous shuffle if you will).

Of course, I have made a few modifications to the hardware to ensure better (and safe) integration:

1. I’m ditching the outer case, it’s small already, but even smaller is better
2. The usb and headphone connections and have been removed and suitable cables hardwired to the respective terminals.
3. The on/off/shuffle selector will no be accessible (for obvious reasons), it has been replaced with a simple 3-stage magnetically operated switch (I’ll build a small magnet into the ring that I already wear every day).
4. I have fitted small surgical-grade steel hemispheres over the controls, so that they are more prominent when under the skin.
5. The whole assembly will be sealed inside a sterile silicon wrap prior to installation.

Well, I’ve got a few days off work to recover from the operation so in a week or so I will post again and let you know how things went.

Posted in Music, Technology |