Control your iPod by clenching your teeth
Oh, those wacky Japanese! A research team at Osaka University have developed head gear that lets wearers control their music by simply clenching their teeth.
Oh, those wacky Japanese! A research team at Osaka University have developed head gear that lets wearers control their music by simply clenching their teeth.
Japanese researchers have just announced a product that can let you control your music player without lifting a finger, thanks to a head-mounted device that uses infrared sensors and a microcomputer.
The Osaka U. science team hopes the technology could become much smaller and can be used for other devices, such as cell phones, and for wheelchairs operated by handicapped persons.
But won’t chewing gum make your music stutter more than Ken from A Fish Called Wanda? Not so, as the computer receives a command when users clench his or her teeth for about a second, which is much longer than the average chew.
"I just thought it’s inconvenient to have to use your hands to switch on iPods or phones, especially on packed trains," says head researcher Kazuhiro Taniguchi, in a statement for the press.
In the lab, grinding the right side of teeth can play and pause music on an iPod while clenching left teeth makes it skip to the next track.
This is news to me I reside @ vancouver
british columbia Canada I am well known to the asian community here in vancouver pleased to hear you lead technology era keep it up
caution be aware of tumors or radiation
dominantofsales@hotmail.com
My first thought? I also reside in Vancouver BC, and the average rider on our public transit system is subjected to so much annoyance that we are clenching our teeth constantly! Nice try, but I think we still need some more deliberate method of controlling our music players.
I am shocked the Japanese didn't contact you to let you know what they were up to. Seeing as how well known your are in the Asian community.
As a dentist……very disturbing. As a lay person…..these researchers have WWWWWWWWWWWWWAY too much free time.
A side note: Vancouver commuting stressful?????? Move to a city with a sprawling transit system and where it doesnt' take a bloody hour to go five miles from the airport to downtown…could never live in a place without a REAL highway or transit system. You can have the trees, and the rain and East Hastings!
How about you guys start researching something that actually matters? This is the stupidest thing ever. Inconvenient to use your hands to change your music?
We're all going to turn into useless blobs with massive heads just like that Mad comic strip.
This too much dependence on technology is frightening.
Thanks for putting this up online. Your blog rocks and mine sucks by comparison but its still cool.