All posts by Tom

Wearable Eyes

http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/18/agencyglass-smartglass-emotional-cybernetics/

I got a good laugh out of this piece. A researcher from Tsukuba University developed a bizarre wearable device called AgencyGlass, which are smartglasses with OLED displays on the front that show a pair of animated eyes. The eyes move and blink as you move your head, automatically gaze at people around you, and they even stay open while you take a nap. The main purpose of the device is to free you of the “emotional effort” of communicating with your eyes, such as the need to maintain the ever-stressful eye contact. This is supposed to help autistic individuals communicate more naturally in social situations, but the contraption looks so creepy that it’s more likely to get them even more ostracized.