LONDON: Researchers have developed glasses that show computer-generated eye animations in place of the wearer’s real ones and could be used to simulate emotional reactions when users are distracted or busy. The glasses also have special lenses to let the user see out or take a secret nap when they want.

Hirotaka Osawa from the University of Tsukuba who developed the glasses said they could simulate reactions when users are distracted or busy. The glasses feature two OLED screens, which are controlled by either a smartphone or PC via a Bluetooth wireless connection. This computer is also connected to a camera to take readings from the wider environment.

On the glasses gyrometer and accelerometer, sensors are fitted to one arm to monitor the user’s behaviour, while a battery on the other arm powers the device. If the user nods, the glasses show a blink, if they shake their head, the eyes blink several times and if they incline their head, the eyes look upwards.

3D mirror shows what lies under your skin
Researchers have developed a “digital mirror” that recreates what your body might look like on the inside. For the mirror to work, an individual undergoes a PET scan, X-ray and MRI scan to capture highresolution images of their bones and organs. When the person steps in front of the mirror, a Microsoft Kinect’s motion-capture camera tracks the movement of two dozen different joints, including the knees, elbows and wrists.

The medical images can be animated with the help of graphical processing units so users can see their body inside out in real time, ‘New Scientist’ reported. Researcher Xavier Maitre, a medical imaging researcher at the University of Paris-South, and colleagues built the digital mirror to explore philosophical questions about how we relate to our body. In an experiment, they left 30 participants alone with the mirror for several minutes to gauge their reactions. In this instance, people were shown pre-recorded data of other individuals of the same sex.

The team found that about one-third of people were uncomfortable in front of the mirror and reluctant to let others see. In the future, researchers said doctors could use a similar system to help people explore a particular part of their body or prepare for an upcoming operation.

Other researchers are already exploring how augmented reality can help medicine. Mirracle, another kind of “mirror” developed at the Technical University of Munich in Germany, projects slices of medical imagery directly onto a person’s body.

Another project — recently featured at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Chicago — can animate MRI data on the computer screen, pinpointing parts of the body that might cause trouble in the future. Maitre and his collaborators want to make the illusion created by the mirror even more life-like by programming the heart to beat and the lungs to move.