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Introduction:

SMIS is a project started in early 2020 by Axel (Azflyer) and it involves manufacturing a series of light portable Bluetooth devices capable of stimulating magnetic implants consistently. A custom made app would provide implant specific features and toys as well as strict standardized sensitivity testing that should allow scientists and the community to compare implants more objectively. We have decided to make the conception of the devices a community Dangerous Things project in hope of producing a design much better than what could be achieved alone and eventually making it available to everyone. The app will be developed and owned by Azflyer in accordance to his research and initial ideas but don't worry the devices are perfectly usable on their own.

"SMIS (Subdermal Magnetic Implant Stimulator) is the successor to the BitSense Project and my work at the IT lab LIRMM in Montpellier on AR and VR haptics through magnetic subdermal implants. It aims at collecting scientific knowledge and providing the tools to experiment with feedback through the use of magnetic implants in the fingertips. This has applications in both virtual and augmented reality as well as sensory substitution and everyday convenience.

Subdermal implants are becoming a common body augmentation in the biohacking community. I personally have 3 N52 Neodymium magnets in my right hand among other implants. These allow me to feel magnetic fields from a short distance. The sensation is provided by the magnets slightly vibrating among the nerve endings. Realizing that being able to wirelessly stimulate this “6th sense” though the production of magnetic fields is a step towards human and machine interfacing made me wonder what the limits of this interface are. "

About the devices:

There will be a couple different devices, depending on what the main use-case is (for now only the CUBE is available). The CUBE, with its completely wireless and compact construction is made to fit in your pocket and accompany you everywhere. It is great for beginners. A future device, the SMIS FREE will be designed to be worn as a watch and will have two wired rings. It is designed to be worn and used for long periods of time. It can for example relay your phones notifications or be used to read your received messages to you in morse code. Or maybe you could use it to train yourself at understanding audio through your fingers. A non Bluetooth device will also be made called the SMIS WIRE. This one will use rings and will give very low latency and a large freedom of movement for AR and VR applications (see video at the bottom). Finally I'm also planning on modifying desktop mice to provide haptic feedback through the same method.

About the App:

The app (android Playstore) will hopefully allow anyone to make good use of their SMIS device! It has an advanced stereo signal generator and will include more and more features and experiments over time! Probably the main feature is a universal test sequence that will precisely define your implant's sensitivity in a standardized way that will allow to compare implants. Also once a large amount of test results is assembled we will finally be able to analyze them and draw fact based conclusions on what parameters influence sensing and in what way. There are also sensory substitution features to be expected where the output from the phone's sensors will be sent to your implant to hopefully give you more artificial senses (finer magnetic fields, compass, light, GPS, etc...). Finally I hope to include some Augmented Reality experiences such as touching virtual objects. But that heavily depends on what an android phone is capable of.