No more nail biting, compulsively pressing the actuator of a retractable pen, or popping plastic bubbles to calm our anxiety. Two inventor brothers, Mark and Matthew McLachlan, from the Antsy Labs design studio, have created a small and simple multitasking gadget whose aim is to help us reduce the stress accumulated in our daily lives .
The Fidget Cube has a very simple design: it is a cube with different buttons on each of its faces that turns out to be “an unusually addictive and high-quality desk toy, designed to help you concentrate”, according to its creators. You can use it at work, in class and at home.
It is somewhat larger than a dice, it will be available in ten different color models and on each side it has buttons, levers or wheels with a special function: you can click – it has five buttons on that face, two of them silent. in case you are in a place where noise can be annoying for those around you -, slide a kind of mini joystick with your finger, rub a surface similar to worry stones (stones of calm) or press what seems to be a switch of light, among others. All of them destined, according to the designers, to reduce anxiety.
The McLachlan brothers explain in their presentation of the project that our way of judging this restless behavior should change. “It should not be stigmatized or mocked as improper or inappropriate. We are passionate about the idea that it is a process that, with the right tools, can have positive applications in real life ,” they stress.
In fact, recent studies, such as one carried out by researchers at the University of New York (USA) in 2015, indicate that tinkering with small devices can have benefits in restless people who feel anxiety, since it can help them to focus on what they are doing and even provide the impetus for their creative ideas .
The Fidget Cube project has raised 5.2 million dollars on the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform (about 4.6 million euros) of the goal of 15,000 (approximately 13,000 euros) that it had originally proposed to collect, and that that the funding campaign has not yet concluded. The gadget can be purchased at a price of $ 25 on Kickstarter and has an approximate delivery date of December 2016.
Here’s a video of its two inventors introducing the device:
Imagen: Antsy Labs
