It surely didn’t escape anyone’s attention Twitter is on track to becoming a mass phenomenon globally. The service is also growing nicely in Japan where it has been embraced by the geek community in particular (Japanese is the only alternative language Twitter is available in until today).
And today a small group of those Japanese geeks, members of the so-called Koress Project, have announced the development of the Akiduki Pulse box, a device that automatically posts your heart rate to Twitter [JP].
After pressing a button on the box for a few seconds, all your Twitter followers get to see your heart rate along with a quick evaluation (bradycardia/normal/tachycardia). Koress says there is a fourth category but wouldn’t reveal details (I’m guessing this should be “death”).
The whole system is completely open source (firmware, hardware info etc.), with Koress planning to eventually commercialize their box and organize seminars to teach hardware makers how to manufacture the device by themselves. Unfortunately, all data and documentation is available in Japanese only.
In the (intentionally funny) promo video below [JP], future customers are bombarded with lines like “Now I can die and post this info to Twitter. That’s what I call a revolution!” and “Use the Akiduki Pulse box when you do sports, are in love or don’t even know yourself if you’re still alive!”.
Nice, geeky idea and you don’t even need a PC to use the Akiduki box, but the deal breaker is the heart monitor without which the whole system won’t work.
Via Asiajin [ENG] via Mycom Journal [JP]