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Moving Cat Ears to Be Sold in Japan This Month

The Japanese project Neurowear announced that it will begin selling the consumer version of its Necomimi (a stylized romanization of the Japanese term for "cat ears") headbands at the Nico Nico Choukaigi event, which will be held in Chiba Prefecture's Makuhari Messe event center on April 28 and 29. Neurowear will offer the moving headbands at the special event price of 7,900 yen (about US$97), before the regular retail release at 8,980 yen (about US$111). The company also revealed last month that a North American version has been completed.

Rather than a standard headband with cat ears on it, Neurowear claims that Necomimi detects the brainwaves emitted by the wearer and moves the ears accordingly — twitching, folding down, or perking back up. NeuroSky, the company that developed the cat ears' brainwave technology, will demonstrate Necomimi at the United Kingdom's Gadget Show Live event, which will take place at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England from April 11 to 15. The American news magazine Time named the "smart cat ears" as one of the best 50 inventions of 2011.

Last year, Neurowear posted videos of the Japanese pop singer Miu Sakamoto and the musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, her father, demonstrating the cat ears.

Update: The Necomimi ears were also on sale in the dealer's room at Sakura-Con in Seattle, Washington last weekend, as well as at Kawaii-Kon in Hawaii last month.

Source: ITmedia via Rocket News 24