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GPS-based Frisson Inducer
RCA, London
Living in a big city often involves passing through dangerous or exciting areas - an experience much harder to find in many smaller towns. This wearable device is aimed at the small town-dweller who yearns for the edginess of living in a big city. Firstly, map-based software enables users to designate any arbitrary space in their town, no matter how dull or empty, as one of their Thrill Zones. Employing classic Pavlovian Conditioning to elicit a response, electrodes connecting the device to the user administer electric shocks of varying magnitude whenever their location is within one of these Zones. After a short training period this results in a frisson of excitement or trepidation whenever the user is getting close to a Thrill Zone, even after the shocks have been switched off.