Leaked from today's 404 episode:
- Microsoft may announce the next generation of Xbox on May 21.
- Chinese people burn Apple products to pay respect to the dead; Americans do it just because.
- Here's a list of porn currently being watched in the Vatican.
- The season finale of "Alf": could it have been done differently?… Read more
LAS VEGAS--If you ever wanted to know what it would feel like to have Mick Jagger massage the knots in your back muscles while you listen to "Tumbling Dice," then I have the perfect gadget for you. The iMusic BodyRhythm massage vest sits over your shoulders and upper back. Plug it into your iPhone, fire up the app, and enjoy a rubdown to the beat of your favorite song.
I got to try out a fully functioning prototype of the vest at CES 2013. The vest's creator Uwe Diegel hooked me up with some "Gangnam Style" massage action. I could see going for the full-album experience and having an extended session with "Exile on Main Street." It would be a very different way of experiencing the music.… Read more
Let's all be thankful that the pictured woman enjoying her Shoulderflex isn't wearing a necklace or much in the way of clothing, and also that her hair is tied neatly atop her head. It turns out that necklaces, clothing, and hair have the potential to turn that peaceful look on her face into something else entirely.
No, seriously. One person was strangled to death after her necklace became caught in the personal massager's rotating component, while another was almost killed when a piece of clothing was caught. Still more have been injured when their hair became entangled in the device.
In light of the death and injuries, the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning last week that the device posed serious health risks, and yesterday the manufacturer, King International, voluntarily recalled nearly all of its 12,000 Shoulderflex massagers in the U.S. sold between 2003 and 2011.
To be fair, the promotional demonstration of the massager advises users to keep hair and jewelry away from the rotating bar--an obvious caution reminiscent of the floor being slippery when wet.
The video did not, however, warn that failure to do so could result in death by strangulation. (The video appears to have been deleted from a variety of sources as the Beaverton, Ore.-based firm tries to extricate itself from the unraveling imbroglio. Calls to the company for comment, meanwhile, went straight to voice mail.)
If you've got a Shoulderflex on hand, the FDA implores you to throw it away.… Read more
KINECT + Massage with Flow Field: pt 2 [Towards an Intelligent Healing Space] from Jai.Tronik on Vimeo.
Calling all massage therapists who want to help clients connect to their "energy fields," or who simply need a little stimulation to stay inspired in the middle of a long work day: The Flow Field 2 is here.
New York University grad student Jason Stephens has combined a video projector, Kinect, and OpenKinect Libraries programming tools to follow the massage therapist's "flow field" (aka movements), beaming the output onto the client's body in a colorful guide.
The project, called Intelligent Healing Spaces, points on its home page to a recent Oxford Journal of Rheumatology study excerpt:
There is increasing evidence that drug-free illusion therapies can be beneficial for the amelioration of chronic pain, particularly so for conditions in which some of the pain is thought to have a cortical origin...If cortical misrepresentation of body parts contributes to pain, then manipulating the appearance of those body parts might be a useful tool in the reduction of pain.Actual therapeutic value has yet to be proven, and the client would require some kind of mirror to be able to see what is going on back there, but either way, at least the massage therapist should be having a good show.… Read more
LAS VEGAS--After a long, hard day at CES, there's nothing like a good massage, even if it is performed by a small robot.
Stopping at the booth for an Israeli company called DreamBots, I got a hands-on, or rather backs-on, demo of its WheeMe portable massage robot.
Fitting in the palm of your hand, the tiny massager works its magic around your back by digging in with four studded wheels, or fingerettes. The WheeMe is able to navigate your body without falling off through a series of sensors that tells it when to stop and when to shift into … Read more
Wellness company Human Touch says HT-Connect, an application slated for release in May as a free download via HT-Connect.com or Apple's App Store, will interact with the company's newest massage chair, the AcuTouch 9500:
By seamlessly interfacing with HT-Connect, the new AcuTouch 9500 massage chair will be the first robotic massage chair to offer individuals a fully customized massage and wellness experience by providing instant access to a wealth of massage programs, expertise, and user-friendly applications--all at their fingertips via Bluetooth wireless connection on an iPhone or iPod Touch.
"By making this innovative app available to consumers," according to Human Touch CEO David Wood, "we're able to deliver a user experience that offers the same personalized and professional massage that one would receive at a spa or from a real, professional massage therapist." (The irony of the company's name seems to have been lost well before this announcement.)
Key features of the app include 16 programmed massages connected to one's iPhone or iPod Touch, with such names as "Morning Wake up," "Surrender," "Rejuvenate," and "Sleep." It also offers direct access to "Wellness Council" experts for advice and tips, providing an intimate connection that is vowed to "allow users to feel better everywhere." Truly an exciting claim.… Read more
Hey, guys, I have a great idea for a product. It's a video game controller built in to a vest that your friend wears. As you're pushing buttons to get your Call of Duty fighter around the map to frag your friend you can simultaneously give him or her a sensual massage.
Wait, what? This already exists? As a concept using a hacked PS3 controller? And it's Austrian? Well, excuse me for breathing. I'm just brainstorming here.
"Massage Me" is currently a DIY project (instructions here) from a couple of smarties at the University of Art and Industrial Design Linz … Read more
MB Reflexology gives users basic information about reflexology and shiatsu self-massage. Like many programs from Mystic Board, this one is heavy on advertising and delivers only mediocre content.
The program's interface is cluttered with advertising for Mystic Board and so-called home business opportunities. We always find it hard to separate the wheat from the chaff on these programs; there's a lot of text, and you're never sure at first whether you're reading an ad or a legitimate part of the program. To start, users choose whether they want to do shiatsu self-massage or reflexology. For shiatsu, … Read more
Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 137… Read more
An iPhone is many things, but a massage therapist it is not. However, if you're in a pinch, the lightweight app Massager may sooth you until your next appointment. The app takes advantage of the iPhone's vibrating motor to create four patterns based on Swedish, Shiatsu, deep muscle, and relaxation massage. Starting and stopping the massage are easy enough to accomplish by tapping and untapping the button. While you can manually increase the intensity by putting some muscle behind the iPhone's flat face, it doesn't even come close to what a pronged massager can do. Yet … Read more
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