Remote Control

October 28, 2005

Yuri Kageyama, a writer for the Associated Press, was recently tested a new device from the Japanese telephone company Nippon Telegraph & Telephone (NTT). The device consists of a special headset (which looks like a pair of large headphones) and a sophisticated remote control. It makes use of “galvanic vestibular stimulation – essentially, electricity messes with the delicate nerves inside the ear that help maintain balance.” By tricking you into thinking you’re about to loose your balance, the device makes you walk (stumble) right or left. The device can be synchronized to a video game to make it seem more realistic, or to music to produce a drug-like effect.

Ms. Kageyama reports:

I found the experience unnerving and exhausting: I sought to step straight ahead but kept careening from side to side. Those alternating currents literally threw me off.

. . .

I felt a mysterious, irresistible urge to start walking to the right whenever the researcher turned the switch to the right. I was convinced — mistakenly — that this was the only way to maintain my balance.

NTT is developing the technology for entertainment purposes (improving video games, virtual reality experiences, and amusement park rides), but other possible applications are mentioned: teaching ballet or gymnastics, creating nonlethal weapons, helping those with balance impairments.

In the end, Ms. Kageyama declares, “I didn’t like that sensation. At all.”