We always knew that the people of Japan were crazy about cats – but this new cat attire takes this fascination to a whole new level!
A Japanese company is making it just a little easier for humans to act like cats.
But instead of offering nine lives, Japan’s Neurowear has introduced a wearable cat tail that wags when a user’s mood changes.
Called Shippo — Japanese for “tail” — the device debuted at Saturday’s Tokyo Games Show and comes as the latest in a new line of products that read users’ brain waves.
Adding a new twist, Shippo uses a headset, a clip-on heart monitor, and a neural smartphone app to read the wearer’s brain waves and sense his or her mood.
When a user is relaxed, the company says the tail moves softly and slowly.
When a user is concentrating, the tail moves hard.
Once that fluffy tail is wagging, the device tags the wearer’s mood to a location online, which can be shared with other users. With an online map of feelings, users could, for instance, find places around town that others have found relaxing, according to a promotional Neurowear YouTube video that has already attracted over 1 million views.Many across the globe seemed excited by the electronic tail. “OMFG. I really want this,” a user named Olivia BlizzyWolf Walsh wrote on the product’s Facebook page.“I love it,” another named Mary Jade commented. “I was waiting for this! Indeed. When, where, and how much???”Some viewers, however, said they wished that the tail were a different size or that a smartphone weren’t necessary to use the product. Others simply weren’t interested.“How about talking to one another, expressing what we feel, without the need of attaching fake tails and sensors to our bodies? This is stupid beyond belief,” another commenter going by the alias Tuscan Foodie wrote.As a company, Neurowear has released more than just cat tails. The company has also released a line of wagable cat ears which also read human brain waves and wiggle with mood.
Those ears cost about $160 USD.
The price of the new tail, however, has not yet been made public.
