ROME – Nothing to do with the perception of invisible realities as some religious and esoteric traditions say. Much more concretely, the “third eye” could save the lives of many pedestrians who have become smartphone addicts. Although painful and not without negative implications, the collision with a wall or a pole, is nothing compared to what could happen ending, without realizing it since “glued” to the mobile phone screen, in the middle of a busy street.
So, partly as a joke and partly because of the concern due to the increase in accidents involving pedestrians too busy with their smartphones, a young South Korean industrial designer has found the solution to the problem. 28-year-old Paeng Min-wook, a graduate in innovation design engineering from the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London, has developed a robotic eyeball he dubbed “The Third Eye” that can be fixed on the forehead. Like old-fashioned dolls that closed their eyes whenever they were turned horizontally, the device, by contrast, opens its translucent eyelid whenever it detects the user’s head lowering towards the display.
When the smartphone addict comes within a meter or two of an obstacle, the system beeps to warn of approaching danger. “This is the appearance of future humanity with three eyes – said Paeng ironically while showing the use of the third eye around Seoul – Since we cannot take our eyes off smartphones, the extra eye will be needed in the future. “. The device developed by Paeng uses a gyro sensor to measure the oblique angle of the user’s neck and an ultrasonic sensor to calculate the distance between the robotic eye and any obstacles. Beyond the goodness of the project, the young engineer himself stressed that his invention should not be understood as a solution but as a warning: “By presenting this ironic solution, I hope that people recognize the seriousness of their addiction to gadgets and succeed to repent of it “. (mr)
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