Monday 27 April 2015

Little Sheep of Horrors

The time has come. George is going for his operation today. I have to implant an infrared distance sensor, a touch sensor, and a speaker into his soft, plush body.


George saying goodbye to his mice friends 


All the stuffing removed from George 

I have grown very attached to George and did not want to disfigure him unnecessarily, so I decided the best place to make the first incision was in the seam on his back. Once I had made a large enough hole, I removed the stuffing from his body and head.




De-stuffed George next to the soon to be implanted technology


Touch sensor implanted in George's head 

Now I could access the inside of the fur to sew the implants in. I debated for a time where to attach the touch sensor but decided to sew it into his head so that he would activate when people patted his head. I had to turn his head inside out, of course, to access the area that needed to be sewn.


Sensor implanted in neck 

One sensor down, one to go. The distance sensor, I decided, would be best implanted in George’s neck, where his bowtie was. I removed the bowtie and began the tracheotomy.

The seams of George’s body naturally joined at this juncture, so I just removed a couple of stitches to create a big enough hole and sewed around it, keeping the fur tight around the sensor so that it would not move. These sensors very helpfully included some holes at the extremities that allowed me to secure them very well.

Now that all the sensors were in place, I stuffed George with a small speaker that I happened to own. It was a little big for the hole I had created, but with some persuasion, I was able to squeeze it in. I attached all the necessary cables to the sensors and speaker and made a small hole in a surreptitious area under his tail for the wires to exit.



I proceeded to re-stuff George and sew him back up. Since I had to remove his bowtie so that it would not obscure the distance sensor, I sewed it to his ear. Now that George has his new implants, I just have to teach him how and when to speak. Stay tuned for some more Sheep Thrills of Programing and more Sheep Speak!


Ciber Sheep

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