Smile: Life's Got Easier
By Katherine Ball
We're in super-tech season, all the latest inventions are being rolled out for us to behold and admire. Katy Ball takes a peek at one new labour-saving invention that might change your life forever... well, for a couple of seconds a day maybe.After a long day battling aggressive commuters on a packed tube, explaining to your hard-nosed boss why that really essential report isn’t done (too much time spent on Facebook), stealing five minutes for a hurried desk-picnic lunch and battling those darned commuters again on the tube home, the last thing you can summon the energy to do is, err, turn on your iPod.
For those of you who find this mammothly athletic task just too much after another day of the hard grind, you can breathe a sigh of relief as once again Japanese technology is saving us from using up precious energy in such a monotonous yet essential task. Yes, boffins at the University of Osaka are developing technology to allow us to control our iPods with a simple clench of the jaw. And lets face it, after eight hours of your hil-ar-ious colleague’s rendition of the Catherine Tate classic ‘am I bovvered’ routine, it’s something you’d be doing anyway by now.
So how exactly is this magical technology working? Well it’s really quite simple; a specially designed headset fitted with infra-red sensors and a micro-computer is attached to your iPod (or other compact mp3 playing device) and it receives signals to react when you clench your teeth. Cool. And apparently the Japanese genii have even worked out a way of differentiating between you grimacing at the fashion faux-pas of the wannabe-WAG sitting opposite you and a genuine ‘track changing’ clench. Awesome. So really this is actually quite cool. Could we put it to use in other, perhaps more worthy causes? Apparently yes. The technology, invented by Fumio Miyazaki, an engineering science professor at the University of Osaka could make a real difference to lots of people lives. "You would be able to listen to music hands-free or operate your cellphone in a crowded train. Handicapped people would also be able to move their wheelchair”. So potentially a bit of lazy-boy techno kit could really change the lives of people with disabilities. That really is worth unclenching your teeth and smiling for.
Find out more about Katy or follow these lovely links:
- Weird inventions - Are you ready for the Shadowlamp invasion?
- Unsung heroes - Who invented the button?
- How it works - Wi-tricity: cordless power
- Gadgets - Weird stuff from the Null shop
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