A device has been designed by Panasonic (in partnership with Kunihiko Morinaga, creator of the fashion brand Arealage) to aid a person’s concentration by limiting their senses. The sense of sight with a partition that narrows their field of view and the sense of hearing via noise-canceling technology. They are calling this device Wear Space, “a wearable device that gives the user a personal physiological space,” and it is as easy to put on as any normal article of clothing is.
Workers nowadays, in today’s civilization of rising open offices and digital nomads, need a method to facilitate their focus more than ever before. Wear Space adapts to the various situations of our modern world within any sort of surroundings a person may encounter. By adjusting the device based on the required level of concentration, they will find themselves at ease to work amongst a busy society.
Kang Hwayoung, who was on the team that created Wear Space, explained: “When someone is wearing the Wear Space, you can clearly see that the wearer wants to focus. We think this is quite important.” At the same time, the wearer clearly can’t see anything other than what’s directly in front of them.
In appearance, the device is reminiscent of the concept of horse blinkers. It consists of a curved strip of flexible material that wraps around the back of the user’s head and extends out to shield the sides of their eyes. Any distractions in the user’s peripheral vision are blacked out. To monitor the range of concentration, the user can adjust their view angle by pulling or pushing the two ends of the device further apart. To widen or narrow down their scope of visibility, push the ends together.
The base is a pair of noise-canceling headphones that are fixed to the inside of its curved body. These headphones feature three levels of noise cancellation depending on the loudness of the environment. Not only do they block out ambient sound but they can also create sound of your choosing. Wear Space is wireless and Bluetooth compatible. The device can pair up to a smartphone or computer to listen to music or anything the user wishes. As for comfortability, Wear Space places no pressure on the top of the head allowing for maximum comfort.
A working model of the wearable device was debuted at Panasonic’s South by Southwest (SXSW) event earlier this year. The design studio has an ongoing crowdfunding campaign running until 11 December 2018 where the product can be purchased for 29,800 Japanese Yen ($260). As of November 12, the campaign has reached 72% of its 15 Million Japanese Yen ($132,000) target.
