High and low technology at Dubai expo

Stressed at work? Gadget companies hope so.

Technology manufacturers and retailers that displayed their wares at the Big Boys Toys luxury exhibition in Dubai at the weekend pitched products aimed at busy professionals.

Certain items were much lower-tech than others. Consider the Dh75 (US$20) porcelain mug with the image of a fuel tank normally seen in a car.

A red indicator rises up the side of the mug as coffee is poured into the vessel, then gradually moves down the mug to indicate diminishing volume as the coffee is consumed.

The Zoo, a retail shop in Dubai that sells the mug, also offered a "desktop stress rocket". The Dh145 toy blasts a foam rocket - aptly named S.T.R.E.S.S.1 - into the air when a frustrated worker punches a bubble target.

Executives blessed with bigger budgets - in the region of Dh9,800 to Dh18,500 - could order flashy digital accessories such as a crystal-encrusted BlackBerry smartphone and an iPad plated in 24-karat gold.

Higher-tech innovations, such as the $6,200 Emperor 1510 workstation, provided the most engaging technology. Expectations were particularly high for Mindball, a Dh72,000 contraption distributed in the Middle East by NovelQuest Enterprises. This multi-person game delivers a novel experience that involves wearing a headband that reads brain waves.

The player who is most relaxed and emits calmer brain wavespowers a ball that rolls across a special table. Once the ball rolls into an opponent's portion of the table, the player who steered the ball there wins a point. Electrodes wired to a biosensor system register the electrical activity of each player's brain, projecting the information on to a television screen. But that screen, though, is sold separately.

Museums and science centres were among the first to purchase or rent Mindball for visitors, its distributor says.

More recently, individuals, companies, universities and even military academies have paid big bucks to use Mindball for team-building or teaching relaxation for stressful situations.

nparmar@thenational.ae