A Japanese toy company claims it has developed a gizmo that will allow people to control what they see in their dreams.
Takara has come up with the Yumemi Kobo, or Dream Workshop, which it says can put people in charge of their dreams. To operate the gadget, the owner stares at a picture of what they would like to dream about and then record, in their own words, how the dream is supposed to play out.
Once asleep, the contraption works by combining the user's voice recording, lights, music and scents to stimulate sleepers whenever it detects REM (rapid eye movement) - the signal that someone is dreaming.
Users are gently awakened, after eight hours, by soft lighting and music to ensure that pleasing memories are not instantly erased.
Takara says it cannot guarantee complete customer satisfaction because they are still in the experimental stages, using mainly company employees.
The dream machine will go on sale in the spring for $130.
Stranger than Fiction Magazine is your premier source for tales of the bizarre and extraordinary. Published quarterly. Established 2004.
Fall 2004 issue (here)
