And now for something completely creepy

There was an interesting piece on InventorSpot today: a website from Japan that allows you to pose with a virtual toupee. Even though I’m completely comfortable with my own hair loss, I love the idea of getting all costumed-up, even virtually. And to be honest, I always wondered how I would look with a bunch of different Japanese hair styles.
I also had a spare image to use. So I uploaded it to this simulator. It’s in Japanese, so there’s a little guesswork involved, but the learning curve is nice and easy.

There’s a button on the simulator, which allows you to choose either a flat image, or a 3D image, and I was curious about how it would try to render my image in 3D, or even if it could. The results sent me down into the uncanny valley, on a broken wagon with no brakes.
First of all, it not only renders in 3D, but it instills some artificial life to the image, as if it were a weird version of me in a webcam, with a nervous twitch, looking around for the Off button. Also … I have Japanese eyes. They’ve got a bluish tint to the whites, and they keep looking around nervously, following the cursor, as if I’m going to poke myself in the virtual face.
And, while it’s a fascinating piece of technology, which allows me to try on several different hairpieces and glasses, it’s really quite creepy.