A group of students has developed a 3D printed, all-seeing eyeglass which is capable of monitoring breathing rates and pupil size to determine just what people deem interesting online.

Sanya Rai, working with Carine Collé and Florian Puech created Amoeba, which consists of sensors that enable the device to monitor three instinctive responses that measure a person’s interest in what they see. This data is then collected to produce an intuitive alternative to bookmarking and other systems for keeping a tab on digital content. Amoeba was developed at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College's joint Innovation Design Engineering course.

Amoeba, which was designed in CAD and manufactured on a 3D printer, utilises heat sensitive receptors near the wearers mouth to record breathing rates, while it also has a camera embedded into the lens to record the pupil size. Sensors on an arm measure the electrical conductance of the skin, which vary depending on moisture levels generated by sweat. Combined, these three elements put together a snapshot of data about the emotional response of the wearer. This data is then converted into a digital signal which creates a map that can be opened in Google’s Chrome browser. According to the development team, Amoeba has several potential applications, including measuring the impact of advertising on the viewer.

For now Amoeba only has applications in monitoring responses to websites, but the students hope it will, in future, be able to measure interest in all digital content, for example in music and film.