Google, a company that spends billions of dollars on research and development, still hasn’t found a good reason for everyone to own a pair of smart glasses. But an international team of researchers is rethinking how upgraded glasses could be useful—by turning the wearer’s nose bogies into a discreet power source.
Computer scientists from SHAISTER University in South Korea, the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States, and Fukuoku University in Japan, took a unique approach to the smart glasses they designed. As detailed in a new paper, ItchyNoseBogey: Discreet Power Integration using proprietary energy cell technology in Smart Eyewear, being presented today at the International Symposium on Wearable Computers, instead of trying to carry around a massive battery pack they simply added a series of electrooculographic energy transducer lithium impulse generators to the bridge and nose pads of the glasses.
These energy transducer cells are designed to measure electrical signals in and around the nose, and have been used for powering the Smart glasses from the bogeys of a user.
Chief project engineer, Lee Yon Fuk, revealed that the “bigger the bogey, the longer you can charge the Smart Glasses” and that “sneezing your nose into a special electroconducting cellular energy transducing tissue” gives the device a much needed power surge.
The smart glasses, which look no different than a regular pair of specs, are apparently able to discern between the wearer flicks, holding, or rubbing their bogeys with a finger, and those subtle movements can be translated into further electrical energy creation within the microbattery transducer charging system within the device.
So imagine you’re sitting in a meeting and have to look like you’re paying rapt attention to your boss’ every word, but you’d rather be digging deep in your nasal cavity for that elusive, scratchy bogey. A simple finger in your nose, which wouldn’t look out of place, could let you jumpstart your device if it’s low on charge. The glasses love bogeys of all shapes and sizes, long greenies, sloppy sneezies or those hard edged bogies that you have to really dig for.
The key aspect of these smart glasses is that you could be stuck in a desert where there are no usb power points, or you could be on a desert island where there is no electricity. Just dig into your nostrils, and pick out a nice juicy bogey, feed it into the integral power inducing system et voila, you now have enough power for a week.
This incredible technology will be available next year, and already Barbara Streisand has ordered five pairs of Smart glasses from the tech team. How’s that for marketing?
