I just looked at the article, and thought "you can blink to stop getting pregnant?

...

I'll get my coat.

Nobody would be able to detect how you get your IPod to magically work!

Clever, but pointless

...I can't operate my left eye independently. Means I have to shuffle right around the 400 hours on my iPod to get to the previous track...

I can't imagine why no researcher has done this before because winking at your iPod is soooo much quicker and easier than pressing the buttons with your finger.

/The boffin as I want apply for a grant to reesearch and develop a buttock-clench operated controller.

Which require you to shut your eyes....

Maybe not so good for road safety

if they CAN develop a functional, practical, and slightly (okay, extremely) less embarrassing version, then I can see this having a niche market in the disability sector.

It's still a brilliantly funny picture though!

interestingly, i remember hearing of artificial limbs in existence, which are controlled by the brain - why go back?

its an interesting concept, but in 10-20 years, we wont need computers, dvds, phones, blink operated controllers, all we will need is our brains.

can you imagine if we had perfectly clear and crisp holographic images in our eyes that could be controlled by our brains? we could surf the web "which by then should be Gb strength lines worldwide" by thinking.

we could talk by thinking

we could take pictures by thinking, and send it to someone by thinking

it will be like being john malkovich, by permission only of course!

this is what we originally had, but we didn't need technology, just an understanding of energy.

its like we have to go forwards to go backwards

interesting nonetheless.

Andy

There you are sitting watching "The News". Suddenly that kid who's been whinging all afternoon that they want to watch something else makes a dive for your neck and rips your head off. OK, that makes watching TV more difficult - being headless 'n' all, but it seems a little extreme, just for the sake of a programme.

Though on the plus side I suppose that, given the size of this thing, there's no chance it could slip down a crack in the sofa.

They should remake this, only with Keith Chegwin instead. The bit where he goes inside his own head would be priceless:

'Chegwin Chegwin Chegwin'

'Chegwin?'

'Chegwin'

'Chegwin...'

'Chegwin Chegwin'

'Chegwin'

'CHEGWIN!!!"

Mines the original 'Cheggers Plays Pops' cagoul.

I can see it being integrated into headphones so runners can control their IPOD without hands. Still may looks funny though. What if you have an eye twitch?

...of Rory Bremnar doing his David Blunkett impression?

why did he have to make it for the diepod ?!

some people have better players !!

Whatever you do - DON'T BLINK!

When it breaks, it's actually NOT on the blink?

"Taniguchi told French news agency AFP that his switch can differentiate between deliberate and autonomic blinks."

If your thinknig about blinking you will blink intentionally by accident if that makes sense, aka a thought about not blinking causing you to blink will be slower than a regular autonomous blink thus the machine will skip track. It's like a 3 1/2min staring contest to hear your favorite song!

Paris - cos we all love to stare at her ;)

"Kome Kami Kome Kami Kome Kameleon..."

OK, I'll fuck off now.

"Please don't let anyone recognise me...!"

Of course with the "close your eyes for a second to switch it on", how long before some pillock walks into a lamppost or crashes a car...?

Does the auther not know the difference between blinking and winking?

'...then blinks their right eye to move forwards by one track. Blinking their left eye...'

You cant blink with one eye!

Therefore that should read:

'...then wlinks their right eye to move forwards by one track. Wlinking their left eye...'.

A loud clatter of gunk music flooded through the Heart of Gold cabin as Zaphod searched the sub-etha radio wavebands for news of himself. The machine was rather difficult to operate. For years radios had beenoperated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive - you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope. It saved a lot of muscular expenditure of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same programme.

It'll end up with people needing to book out the whole row on the plane.

Otherwise when you poke out the eye of the guy next to you, he gets angry (not because of the pain), but because he was really enjoying the guitar-solo of the track he WAS just listening too.

So this prototype (hopefully never a product) must have a crappy carbon footprint (die stupid control crud!!!!!).

Oh yeah - it also makes you look a right door-handle.

What the hells a "wlink"?

>there's no chance it could slip down a crack in the sofa.

That all depends on how drunk you were the night before and the size of the bird you pulled.

Who needs a remote for an ipod they are holding?

I suspect its a proof of concept for those people who, perhaps don't have fingers they can use and who might use a remote for other things too. Maybe a tv remote or a phone pickup system for paraplegics.

Paris, she has something in her eye and the blinking is wreaking havoc...

Imagine the shiss you'd be up against at airport security.

If you have to switch on your laptop to shown it's real, imagine putting these on and looking like some trippy addict to convince the TSA (or local airport security) that it's for real.

One way ticket to Gitmo?

I will never want to blink to change tracks. That would just be creepy and irritating.

Neural stuff, however...

or does he look like they are using some sci fi method of tourching and frying his brain ??

Scenario 1:

You're walking down the street listening to your iPod. Just as a stranger walks by, you change tracks. Stranger is offended by your winking and slaps you across the face. Your involuntary flinch during the slap is misinterpreted by the controller to mean "Play 'Girl U Know It's True' by Milli Vanilli at full volume."

Scenario 2:

You're walking down the street with your significant other... You decide you want to skip forward to the next track on your iPod just as a stranger walks by. Said stranger sees you winking at him/her, and winks back. Significant other sees this exchange and slaps you across the back of your head. Your involuntary flinch during the slap is misinterpreted by the controller to mean "Play 'Girlfriend' by Avril Lavigne at full volume."

well thats it then. We are gonna have a society of blinking wrecks. Everyone will be bling winking whatever all bloody day. Give it a few weeks we will have a case of repetitative blink injuries. Im happy with my hands thanks!

"Boffin's Blindingly Brilliant Blinking Brainwave Buggered By Botox"

I'll bet by boat.

A typo - end of a long day! WINK

I foresee lots more admissions to mental institutions as ordinary people are caught walking down the street apparently talking to themselves on their bluetooth headsets and uncontrolably twitching their facial muscles

Because I saw a similar thing demonstrated on Tomorrow's World! It was a product for disabled people to use instead of a computer mouse and worked on following the direction of gaze to point, and wink to click. They had someone demonstrating it by playing solitaire. It must have been ages ago as they were using windows 3.11.

Close my eyes to activate my ipod ... 1 second later I open my eyes ... some bastard's nicked my ipod! ;)

Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

(The one with the big foot on the back)