While you're not looking » Product

Bowlingual

Wendy Cooper — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:49:12 +0000

The international infant and children toy manufacturer, Takara Tomy, have released their improved version of Bowlingual. Believe it or not, it’s a device that translate the bow-wows of your dog into human language, so far only in Japanese. One part is strapped around like a dog collar to detect the vibrations of the dog’s larynx and the other, a hand held device, displays and vocalises the translated barks. My sceptical opinions remains only because there’s no chance of knowing the accuracy of this translator. Is that why it doesn’t translate Japanese back into the bow-wows? It would be an undemanding task for it already has the lexicon database. We could carefully annunciate our message into the hand held device, select the correct variants on the screen if there are any and it plays back the barking to the dog. Woof, Bob’s your uncle. And how would this product rate in Korea? Would we want to speak to our meal? And once Meowlingual, Oinklingual, Baalingual and Moolingual is out there, would we all become vegetarians?

The Bowlingual TVC

anti-theft lunch bags

Wendy Cooper — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:16:00 +0000

A lunch bag that is not what it seems.

Polly van der Glas

Wendy Cooper — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:59:05 +0000

Speaking of Christmas and shopping for Jesus, I am in an ongoing annual annoyance (sorry, quest) of wracking my brain for unusual gifts for loved ones. Melbourne’s very own jolly jewellery Polly van der Glas comes to mind, an oldie but a goodie. Her pièce de résistance are the ones incorporating human artefact, opening up and replacing the glass cabinet with the human body. It conjures the same intrigue as taxidermy for me, bring life into inanimate objects, a modern alchemist.