'Boring headset' reveals wandering thoughts

It is a piece of wearable computing that could bring a first date to a very abrupt end.

The EEG visualising pendant - developed by Rain Ashford, a PhD student at Goldsmiths, University of London - is able to monitor electrical activity in a person's brain and transmit a visual interpretation of that activity to a pendant that can be wore around the subject's neck.

By monitoring how stimulated certain parts of the brain are, it is possible to have some indicator of whether a person is engaged with the conversation taking place.

The technology was being shown off at the International Symposium on Wearable Computers in Zurich.