Qudi LED Emotion Face Masks: Wearing Your Heart on Your Face

Have trouble expressing your emotions? I’m with you; my couples counselor says it’s something I really need to work on. And here to help is the Qudi Mask, a full face mask consisting of translucent ski-style goggles with LED eye rings and a bottom portion with 199 smart LED lights for better expressing yourself. RIGHT NOW, I’M ANGRY. Just kidding, only tired.

The $289 mask is available in black and white and is controlled via a smartphone app that allows you to choose the mode and display and LED color. In emotion mode, the mask displays the emoticon of your choice (smile, love, shocked, confused, angry, and cat — the most important emotion of all) and animates the mouth to match your speech. The emotions can also be attached to triggers (e.g., nodding yes or shaking your head no) so they can be changed without having to access your phone. That’s a good thing too because I can never find mine.

In addition to emotion mode, there are also 25+ preset animations, an equalizer mode that responds to audio, and a text mode that allows you to display any message you want. The Qudi’s battery lasts for between three and four hours of use and takes approximately 1.5 hours to fully charge. How are you going to use yours? I’m going to use mine to improve my relationship with my wife. Mostly by using the cat emoticon and pretending I’m a cat. She loves cats.

[via Man of Many]

The Moflin is a Tribble-like AI Pet with Emotional Capabilities

What you’re looking at is an artificial intelligence-driven furry electronic pet that can express its own emotions via movement and sound. The Moflin’s AI allows its emotions to constantly change based on its environment – much like a real pet’s, except you’ll save a small fortune on pet food. Originally launched as a Kickstarter project, the campaign was a success, and Moflins will be available later this year for around $400. Still, no word if they’ll breed as quickly as Tribbles.

A Moflin constantly scans its surroundings with its sensors and uses its own interactions to determine patterns and respond accordingly, with “an infinite number of movement and sound combinations” available to express its feelings. Not bad. For reference, I’m only capable of grunting and shaking my head no.

Pretty cool, but if they really wanted to sell these things they should have scored the Star Wars licensing rights and made them look like Baby Yoda. You wouldn’t be able to keep them on store shelves! They’d be this year and every year’s must-have Christmas gift. Wait – did I just come up with a multi-million dollar idea? We need The Mandalorian’s blessing, STAT. Somebody call him, tell him The Child is in trouble.

[via BoingBoing]

Brain-controlled VR lightshows could lull you to sleep

By most accounts, technology wreaks havoc on our sleep. Even tools meant to help us sleep better can make insomnia worse. But sleep and tech don't have to be mutually exclusive. Artists and researchers from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RM...