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Steve Mann, a professor at the University of Toronto who wears a web of wires and computers as part of an ongoing experiment on Wearable Computing, was recently subjected to a three-day interrogation and strip search after trying to board a plane in Newfoundland. Apparently, Dr. Mann refused to put his equipment through the x-ray machine, stating that he had special permission not to, which did not sit well with security. I, for one, can’t imagine why, in a day and age where my grandma is assaulted for bringing knitting needles onto a plane, security might be upset that a guy loaded down with wires was trying to bypass security, permission or not.

As if a cyborg strip-search were not news in and of itself, the fallout from the incident is also interesting, albeit a bit disturbing. Evidentially, during the strip search several electrodes were torn from Mann’s body, and much of his equipment was destroyed. Consequently, Mann no longer had fancy computers helping him get around. This became quite problematic when Mann was no longer able to walk or navigate around the airport properly. Without his cyborg extensions, Mann fell down and hurt himself - more than once - and had to be escorted to the plane, bleeding, in a wheelchair. Scientists at his University are now studying the effects of the sudden disconnection so that they might be better equipped to deal with that sort of problem when wearable computers become more ubiquitous.

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