Distinguishing between a wink, a nod, and an iPod

Do you sometimes feel that the convenience of having hundreds of songs and other digital files loaded onto your iPod is offset by the inconvenience of having to manually navigate through the file list? OK, well maybe not. But still, you should know that a researcher at Osaka University has come up with a prototype of a remote-control device that, when clipped to eyeglasses or headphones, allows the wearer to replay, skip, and pause songs through a combination of eye winks.

Infrared sensors and a microcomputer on the device--called the KomeKami Switch, or Temple Switch--are designed to detect differences in the movement of your skin when you wink. The switch then sends appropriate instructions to the iPod. The KomeKami Switch's principal developer, Kazuhiro Taniguchi, a researcher at the university's Graduate School of Engineering, notes that the device is capable of distinguishing between blinks and winks, so random eye movement won't suddenly send you a track ahead of that Rhianna tune you're obsessed with.

[fleurya]

Techies with no practical vision

If I thought of this, the first thing I would consider is practical application. Once
I immediately realized that people using this would look like crazy twitching
freaks, I would move on to the next project.

[LiveStronger]

Hahaha... that'll be fun

This could be fun... You're standing on the metro, and seeing the college students act completely normal, then start twitching like mad trying to find the next song. Stupid shuffle setting...

[mchuntley]

I think this is Great!

This is a cool tool.
I think this is very practical. Imagine two of them, the things you could control in your car? Especially mated with bluetooth?