Blinklifier: Bat eyelashes, activate display

The stylish Blinklifier.

(Credit:
Triciaflanagan.com)

Princess Leia, eat your heart out.

If you need a little extra something in your struggle against the Galactic Empire, what better than this charming headdress? It’s enough to stop a platoon of stormtroopers dead in its tracks.

But Blinklifier is no sci-fi film prop. It’s the subject of research on feedback loops being presented at this month’s 10th Asia Pacific Conference on Computer Human Interaction (APCHI 2012) in Matsue, Japan.

Tricia Flanagan of Hong Kong Baptist University and colleagues are proposing Blinklifier as a wearable computer that emphasizes the user’s eye movements with a colorful LED display.

According to the researchers, the device creates a feedback loop in that it amplifies voluntary and involuntary eyelid movement, eliciting a reaction based on an action.

The project draws inspiration from the work of wearables pioneer and University of Toronto Professor Steve Mann, who recently claimed he was assaulted in a Paris McDonald’s because of his computerized … [Read more]

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