Say goodbye to sweaty armpits: Japanese electronics giant Sony is selling a wearable air conditioner that will keep you cool, so you won’t have to suffer a drenched work shirt just because you went to the kopitiam for lunch.
A crowdfunded project, the Reon Pocket was just launched on Monday (July 22), but it’s already turning heads on social media.
According to South China Morning Post (SCMP), the device – which is touted to be smaller and lighter than a smartphone – releases cool air through a small rear panel at the back of a shirt.
The temperature of the air can be adjusted through a mobile phone app, but it can also automatically set an appropriate temperature for the weather, SCMP said.
However, you’ll have to wear a special undershirt that comes with a pocket where the Reon Pocket sits.
On the product’s website, a set of one machine and an undershirt is listed at 14,080 yen (US$130.25).
It is also selling the machine in sets of both three and five undershirts at 17,380 yen and 19,030 yen respectively.
According to tech news website TechGenyz, the device – which has a battery life of about two hours on a 90 minute charge – is made with a Peltier element usually used for car coolers and wine coolers.
This Peltier element helps cut down power usager when the device is used for a long time to cool something, it added.
While the Reon Pocket is currently a Japan-exclusive product, many netizens are already thirsty for one.
“I need to move to Japan for this,” one Facebook user, Maheen Meenai Rizavi, said in the comments section of SCMP’s video post on the product.
If you live outside of Japan, there is some hope that the device may be released worldwide one day, considering how well received the product seems to be in its homeland.
Over 28,000,000 yen of the 66,000,000 yen crowdfunding goal had been raised by Thursday afternoon – just three days after the project first launched.
With temperatures in Singapore reaching highs of 33 to 34 deg C this month, we definitely concur with Facebook user Goncalo David Lage’s sentiments that “I reaaaaally need this!!!”.
