Some of Japan’s top young minds at the Universities of Tokyo and Waseda must have given their brain cells a real work out to come up with their latest gadget: Kokonatchi. Looking something like a hybrid stress ball and giant butter bean, Kokonatchi connects to your computer via a USB lead, sits on your desk, wiggles and lights up when a new tweet enters your account feed. It contains RGB LEDs which change color according to the context or ‘emotion’ of the tweet, and vibrates or ‘shivers’ when it is scared. Twitter is hugely popular in technologically-crazed Japan, especially since the 140-character word limit allows users to communicate so much more using Japanese characters, than simple ABCs. Designers are hoping that cutesy Kokonatchi will appeal to men and women alike. Robotics company Yukai Engineering has plans to begin sales and distribution later this year.

Prototypes of Kokonatchi will be available for 6,000 JPY ($70). The first batch of 1000 Kokonatchi will be priced at around 4,000 JPY ($45 each.
[Plasticpals]