Hacked Mindflex Toy Delivers Shocks When You Focus [Video]
Mattel's Mindflex toy is designed to show you the awesome power of your brain as you mentally guide a ball around a maze, but it's just as happy showing you the awesome pain electricity can present to your body. Harcos Labs took the Mindflex brain-wave monitor and hooked up a QKits electroshock kit to make what they've called "the most painful toy hack ever", one that shocks you if you dare concentrate.Video demo after the cut
The idea is straightforward: just as Mindflex in its original form rewards your focus by advancing game-play, the same triggers in Harcos Labs' nasty setup cause an electric shock to be sent through two wristbands. Keep your mind unfocussed and you can avoid the pain, though obviously that's harder to do when you're surrounded by co-workers desperate to see you squeal.
The video below says it all, really, but if we were to add anything we'd say "don't try this at home, kids." Electricity is, of course, dangerous, and the last thing you want to do is accidentally train your brain to leave you slack-jawed and perpetually absent-minded.
[Thanks Jon!]