Japanese Researchers Create Wearable Eyes to Help You Appear More Social and Alert

Posted on April 14, 2014

Japanese researchers have developed wearable eyes to help reduce "emotional labor" and make you appear to be more social even when you are actually annoyed, distracted or asleep. Automaton reports that the glasses are the invention of Dr. Hirotaka Osawa at Tsukuba University.

The device, called AgencyGlass, contain a digital screen for each eye. The eyes on the screen appear alert and attentive even if the wearer is asleep or focused on something other than the people in the room. Automaton says the virtual eyes on the AgencyGlass device also "naturally follow people and movement." The virtual eyes blink if the wearer nods or shakes their head. The glasses also make the wearer look somewhat ridiculous. An example in the video below shows how the glasses could make a teacher appear more approachable to a student even when the teacher is actually distracted. Take a look:



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