Geek In Me

via gizmodo.com

Mmm, mind-bending USB lollipops, the “delicious new confectionary uses cutting edge Sensory Substitution Technology to transmit vivid emotive images into your mind’s eye.” Wait, what? Tripping via USB? Shockingly, it might actually be legit.

It may seem like a total sham (and the “email for availability” link on the “Order Online” page doesn’t help), but the the concept behind Eye Candy is actually based on real scientific research. In the 1970s, Mexican Neuroscientist Paul Bach-y-Rita, developed the then-crazy idea that the brain could accept other non-visual stimuli, such as someone tracing a figure on your back, and actually produce a vision of the figure in your mind as if you had seen it.

Devices like Eye Candy work by producing a matrix of small electrical pulses on your tongue, which is loaded with nerves, in the shape of a certain object to fool the brain into seeing it. Whether a faux-image of a fish can help you RELAX, or a faux spider can help you OVERCOME your fears like Eye Candy asserts is a different matter entirely, but the tech is not a total hoax.