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Here is a fun demonstration of the Necomimi cat ears that were noted as reference material for the project.

Amazing work building your own btw!

Yes, it's a Necomimi clone. The big year for those was 2012. They detect three mental states - idle/relaxed, attentive, and surprised. I saw a group of cosplay girls wearing them at a convention. Someone called out the name of one of the girls. Her ears, and not the ears of the others, popped up. A review reported someone playing a video game had their ears in the "attentive" position while playing a level, and the ears would droop between levels.

Good idea, but too bulky. It needed cosplay big hair to hide the machinery. The big head-mounted box is mostly the 4 AAA batteries. If someone revives this, the mechanism needs to be about half the size and better fitted to a head.

The Nekomimi people also came out with a powered cat tail, but that was a total flop.

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