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Oddity Central -  A group of Japanese scientists have created a doll-like mobile phone they say is designed to make you feel closer to the person you’re talking to. No, this is not a joke…  Japan has been at the forefront of technological research and development for a long time, but some of the things they’ve come up over the years were incredibly weird and creepy. Case in point the latest mobile phone prototype designed by researcher Takashi Minato assisted by a team of scientists. He has created a human-shaped cell phone with a skin-like outer layer that is supposed to help people feel closer to the person they’re communicating with.  The current prototype is slightly larger than the palm of a hand, designed to look like a human and has a soft outer layer that heats and cools in a similar way human skin does. A speaker is installed in the creepy humanoid head of the handheld gadget, and the microphone is located at the bottom, where the feet should be. It also has a light-emitting diode that turns blue when the phone is in use and red when it’s in stand-by mode. Minato and his colleagues hope to add image and voice recognition in the near future.

Really Japan?  Like, for reals?  This is the reason the world laughs at you as much as it respects you.  You do weird shit like this all the time.  Sure, you have people that can dominate hot dog competitions, but then you ruin the good by throwing in piles of bad to your name.  Who the fuck do you market something like this to?  A phone that feels like human skin that can warm up like real flesh?  If someone goes on a waiting list to buy this thing their name should also be sent to the FBI and their residence checked for a well in their basement with people in it.  I can’t picture one scenario where someone is talking on a phone and they say, “you know what?  this cell phone is great, but it would be way better if it felt like i was hugging someone’s cheek when I talked on it.”  It’s exactly this type of technology we will never ever need as a species.  But those Japanese are crazy enough to buy this shit.  I know I’m gonna be on the T one of these days and see some Asian dude pulling this voodoo doll out of his pocket and start screaming into it.  When that day comes I’m gonna cry.