Yes, yes, we all spend too much time on our phones. You know it, we know it, everybody knows it – but what's the answer? Screen Time? Self-discipline? Nope – according to one South Korean industrial designer, the answer is, of course, strapping a robotic third eyeball to your forehead.
Dubbed The Third Eye, Minwook Paeng's solution for a generation of ‘smartphone zombies’ is designed to spot obstacles in front of you, so you don't have to. The device will then alert the wearer – so you don't have to take your eyes off any of the best camera phones for even a second.
The Third Eye in action (Image credit: Minwook Paeng)
The device, which contains a gyro sensor, opens a translucent eyelid upon sensing that the user's head has been lowered to stare at a smartphone, When the user comes within one to two metres of an obstacle, it will emit a beep – a little like a car sensor.
"This is the look of future mankind with three eyes," Paeng, a postgraduate in innovation design engineering at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London, told Reuters. "As we cannot take our eyes off from smartphones, the extra eye will be needed in future."
The whole thing looks pretty ridiculous (you could get the look by strapping any of the best webcams to your head) – but don't worry, it isn't designed to be serious. Paeng calls The Third Eye a "satirical solution", intended to draw attention to the severity of "gadget addiction" in today's world. "I hope people can criticize our behaviors and rethink about ourselves evolving to Phono Sapiens," the designer says in an Instagram post (above).
From transparent TVs to crawling chargers, we've seen all sorts of weird and wonderful tech concepts over the last year. Thankfully, The Third Eye doesn't look like it'll be hitting the market any time soon. If you fancy indulging your inner Phono Sapien, take a look at today's best iPhone 12 deals below (just don't blame us if you walk into a lamppost while using it.)
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Daniel John is Design Editor at Creative Bloq. He reports on the worlds of design, branding and lifestyle tech, and has covered several industry events including Milan Design Week, OFFF Barcelona and Adobe Max in Los Angeles. He has interviewed leaders and designers at brands including Apple, Microsoft and Adobe. Daniel's debut book of short stories and poems was published in 2018, and his comedy newsletter is a Substack Bestseller.
