Smart Investor magazine, Up To Speed column, September 2008

GIZMO

In Taiwan’s Hsinchu Technology Park, where so many of the innovations that power your gadgets are developed, they are worried about the future, in a tumbling world market of flagging demand. Innovate, innovate, innovate, is the mantra – which is how we end up with whacky gizmos like Asustek’s Vito W1 wireless mouse. Not just a mouse. It’s a heart monitor too.

We’re probably not alone in finding this a curious choice of synergy, but it’s also true that desk jockeys who lack exercise and suffer stress ought to keep an eye on how their vital organs are getting along. The mouse has a built in pulse rate sensor, and the heart rate can then be displayed on screen using software provided by the mouse. It seems like a recipe for paranoia to us but for those who want to give it a try, it’s out in Taiwan now and headed this way.

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