#HTE

Panasonic’s Noise-Canceling Office Blinders

So here’s what it’s come to: Penny-pinching corporations insist on stuffing us workers into open office plans, which everyone hates. It’s impossible to concentrate in a bullpen. Thus Panasonic has invented Wear Space, a pair of noise-canceling headphones combined with visual blinders, in hopes of focusing your attention.

The partition on the side of the main body can narrow the view of the left and right when wearing it, and can interrupt troublesome visual information such as the movement of surrounding people and light. Cutting the horizontal field of view by about 60% will promote concentration in the work in front of you.

All told, Wear Space provides visual focus, noise cancellation, audio playback via Bluetooth, and the necessarily anti-social feature of blocking your face from view. As Panasonic explains:

Have you ever experienced that your concentration has [been broken by] being spoken to by your colleague or your boss, despite [attempting to focus] on your work while listening to music with earphones or headphones? With WEAR SPACE you can tell the surroundings that you are “concentrating on the work” just by wearing it.

Panasonic is currently attempting to crowdfund the Wear Space. At press time they were just over half of the way towards their ¥15,000,000 (USD $134,000) goal.