If you’re interested in the idea of cybernetic body modification but put off by the excruciating pain, you might want to hold out for Japanese company Neurowear’s Shippo. A follow up to last year’s Necomimi cat ears, the Shippo is a motorized tail that wags in accordance with your brain activity, turning you into a half-dog chimera.
Shippo motorized tail wags with your brain waves (hands-on video)
Neurowear’s Shippo is a motorized tail that responds to the user’s brain activity —anxiety and excitement make the tail wag quickly, while a meditative state makes it slow down. The product could be released as early as the end of this year.
Neurowear’s Shippo is a motorized tail that responds to the user’s brain activity —anxiety and excitement make the tail wag quickly, while a meditative state makes it slow down. The product could be released as early as the end of this year.
The device, whose name means “tail” in Japanese, uses an inexpensive NeuroSky EEG headset to measure your brain activity while a clip-on pulse monitor measures your heartbeat. The headset uses the data to determine your mental state, which it sends to the tail over Bluetooth — a meditative state will cause the tail to barely move at all, but as you get excited or anxious the prosthesis starts to pick up steam. So far there’s no word on price, but Neurowear’s owner tells us it could be shipping as early as the end of the year.
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