GPS-based Frisson Inducer

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.

By uploading their own data to the device's website users can share their Thrill Zones with their friends and fellow thrill-seekers. Everyday activities can thus be transformed, for example the train-spotting scene is now attractive to many fans of extreme sports, while weekday bell-ringing sessions have been compared to old-school raves.

Currently the largest active Thrill Zone in the UK is frequented by rival gangs of civil engineers and librarians who congregate in deserted car parks in Milton Keynes early on Tuesday evenings. Buckinghamshire Police have expressed "concern" over their rowdy and unpredictable behaviour.

Photos: Chris Woebken