Augmented Body: Wear Cat Ears Controlled By Brain Waves

Just when I thought I would never see any crazy inventions from Japan that could ever top what I’ve already seen and written about before, I stumbled across these cat ears. As with most Japanese inventions, if you can get passed the initial feeling of being disturbed, it’s actually fascinating.

These cat ears are called Necomimi. They are a “communication tool that augments the human body and its abilities.” It’s a way to control an organ (ears) that aren’t actually a part of your body with your brain. When you are concentrating, the cat ears go up, when you are relaxed, they go down, etc…

It’s a headband that has EEG sensors built into it. The gadget is programmed to move the ears according to brain activity. Although it all seems rather silly at the moment, I think if they continue to develop this technology so it can detect other emotions as well, it could be really useful for people who want to express their feelings but are unable to speak for whatever reason.

We’ve seen products on the market before that respond to impulses in our head, like the Jedi Trainer products, and some mind-control games, but I’ve never seen anything quite like this before. These are being marketed in Japan as a sexy way for girls to set themselves apart from the crowd. As goofy as these look, I like it better than the other “sexy” Japanese trend I wrote about which is stretching your eyes with special contact lenses to make them bigger, like manga eyes. At least with this trend, you may look like an idiot, but you won’t be in pain.