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from the none-so-blind-as-he-who-would-not-see dept.
There's nothing dystopian at all about these high-tech blinkers for humans
Ever feel like you're having too much fun in the office? Like your boss just isn't getting enough value out of your life? Fear not: Panasonic has designed a pair of high-tech blinkers* that block out your peripheral vision to help you concentrate on the job at hand.
The concept is called Wear Space, which consists of a lightweight, wraparound fabric screen that conceals a pair of Bluetooth headphones. The screen cuts your horizontal field of view by around 60 percent, while the headphones come with a built-in noise-canceling feature that can pipe in music of your choice. It charges over USB and has a battery life of 20 hours.
The Wear Space isn't an official Panasonic product (yet), but a prototype was developed by the company's Future of Life design studio. An early version was shown at SXSW earlier this year, but the creators of the Wear Space are now raising money for the device on Japanese crowdfunding site GreenFunding.
[...] *Also known as blinders. The metaphor we're going for here is the equipment used to restrict a horse's vision, so we're using the correct terminology, as recommended by the Kentucky Derby.
See also: Open offices have driven Panasonic to make horse blinders for humans
(Score: 1) by Goghit on Friday October 19 2018, @05:24PM (1 child)
I worked in a building that was desperately short on space and had several workstations set up in nooks and crannies in the basement. One such workstation was next to the door to the mechanical room containing the furnace and air handling equipment. One day this equipment caught fire and the facilities people were in there with fire extinguishers trying to knock it down before the fire department arrived. The fire kept flaring up and driving the crew back out the door. My friend on the crew who told me this story said that every time this happened the programmer at the workstation would type faster, increasing his speed the closer the fire got to him.
Later, as a fire marshal in the same building I ran into this trying to persuade people to leave their phones/terminals because the fire alarm was sounding and we didn't know why. There's a limit to my work focus and frying at my desk definitely exceeds it.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday October 20 2018, @10:47AM
See, this is another reason ADHD folks need to take up smoking, aside from the beneficial medicinal qualities of nicotine unique to them. They won't be averse to taking "smoke breaks".
My rights don't end where your fear begins.