The future is going to be funny looking. We walk out of men’s rooms now shaking our heads at the guy who appeared to be talking to himself (or, uncomfortably, to us) because of his Bluetooth headset. Just wait till he starts winking and wagging his tongue.
Japanese engineers—you were expecting stoic, practical Germans or market driven American engineers?—have developed a gadget for the iPod (or similar devices) called the Mimi Switch. “Mimi” is Japanese for “ear” and the switch is designed to read facial movements by measuring motions occurring within the ear as a result. Connecting to an electronic device allows hands-free control of the device using only facial expressions.
Apparently it could work with just about any gizmo or home appliance. Wiggle your nose Bewitched style to start the washing machine, stick out your tongue to skip a song, smile at your TV and turn up the volume.
Or creep out the guy next to you at the urinal.
According to the brains behind it, Kazuhiro Taniguchi, the Mimi Switch can read your lack of smiling and play a cheerful song for you, or can alert relatives when you’re not feeling well. How’s that for having a relationship with technology?
They should call it the Ear Bud.
While it’s clearly destined for some kind of depraved abuse, the positive side is that this device could be really helpful for the handicapped and elderly. It makes you wonder, too, if we’ll be tweeting by a series of blinks one day.
Add to that this way cool thing I’m going to call the EyePod, a video camera that looks like an eyeball that allows people to transmit video from inside their head. The “Eyeborg project” is intended as a prosthesis, but my bet is the wrong hands are on their way with some funding—or at least some Hollywood types.
