Most of us spend hours in front of the computer, either for leisure or for work. Either way the number of hours spent are usually not very healthy, although we admit this sounds kind of ironic coming from a tech blogger. In any case two students at the University of Munich have come up with an Arduino powered “Personal Energy Orb”, which as pictured above, glows a rather ominous red when it has detected that the user in front of the computer has been on it for too long. The orb measures what its designers, Janko Hoffman and Fabian Pammer call “virtual energy level”, which is essentially how they measure how long someone’s been in front of a computer against healthy physical activity.
As the measured “virtual energy level” decreases, not only does the orb glow red, but at the same time it also affects the way the user uses their computer. For example it will gradually decrease your mouse speed until the slowest setting possible, which not only is incredibly annoying but will probably act as a good sign for computer users to get off their chair and do some exercise. The orb can be recharged by attaching it to a bicycle and going for a ride. Sounds like a pretty good idea although we’re not sure if there are any plans to commercialize it at this point in time. More info on the project can be found on their website.
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