I think most of us are fairly familiar with the different emoticons that have become the standard of SMS and IM conversations. We all know what it means when someone types out a colon followed by a right parentheses. Even the guys at “Big Bang Theory” made mention of a colon and a capital D in the season premiere. However, emoticons have yet to truly infiltrate the real world. That is, until now.

If you’re ready to be terribly frightened and disturbed, then you may want to take a look at the Real Life EMO ball. This peripheral attaches to your desktop or laptop computer via a standard USB connection, but it can actually reproduce the emoticons as you type them in Windows Live Messenger.

You’ll need to install the provided Virtual Emo software, but the idea is that this yellow ball will move its eyes, eyebrows, and mouth to best approximate the smiley faces that you are sending to your friends over IM.

The marketing speak says that this “realistic buddy” will make your conversations “a lot funnier and more cosy off [sic] course.” What they don’t mention is when your EMO ball gets sentient and decides to thrash about in dark clothing.

Source: RGS