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Dorothy

Wearable tech concept by ISL lets users trigger instructions to your phone using gestures made with your feet (for example, ordering a taxi or triggering a fake phone call to get out of a situation) - video embedded below:

Have you ever been stuck in an awkward situation, praying your phone would ring so you could politely extract yourself?  Of course you have.  That’s why we made Dorothy, a physical trigger that makes any dumb shoe smart. Dorothy consists of the “Ruby” (a small connected device that slips into your shoe) and a mobile App that allows you to trigger a call to your phone from a fake contact (your “boss”) whenever you tap your heels together 3 times. Dorothy can also send text messages to your contacts with a custom message and your current location, letting them know exactly where you are. Soon, we’ll be working toward summoning an Uber.

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AgencyGlass

Bizarre proof-of-concept tech by Dr. Hirotaka Osawa are glasses with small displays that give attention to others around you.

The idea here is that we have technology to help us work in areas such as physical labour and brainwork, but not “emotional labour”, the social face-to-face aspects of job roles. Video embedded below:

From IEEE:

Have you ever had trouble concentrating in the office as people walk by and glance at you? Do you come off as unfriendly or aloof, when you’re really just focusing on your work?

Dr. Hirotaka Osawa from Tsukuba University, in Japan, has developed a new wearable device to help us with something called “emotional labor.” His idea is that people could adopt cyborg technology to increase the emotional comfort of those around us. In this case, the device is a crazy pair of glasses that display eyeballs on their lenses.

The device’s virtual eyes naturally follow people and movement, making it appear as though you’re friendly and approachable, even if you’re too busy doing something else or too tired to actually look friendly and approachable.

"This emotional support reduces a user’s cognitive load for social manners," Osawa says.