#1559: Intermissioff

Today’s invention is a way to stop me eating distractedly whilst surfing the web (apparently the TV dinner has been largely replaced by IP grazing).

A pressure-sensitive graphics tablet (or digital scale) is usb-connected to one’s laptop. Every time a forkful is lifted off a plate of food placed on the tablet (as inferred from a decrease in weight), whatever is on-screen automatically greys-out and, if a movie, is paused.

When the weight of the bare fork is added to the plate again, the screen is once more made live.

This would enable food to be eaten less mindlessly and during natural breaks in on-screen attention.