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If it works as it claims to, the aircon watch could be an extraordinarily successful device. Because it’s not a watch, but a personal air-conditioner, aimed at keeping you cool, or warm, as required.

The standard technological response to heat or cold is to change the environment – lowering the temperature or raising it. But the team from Hong Kong that’s conceptualised this device is tapping into the inherent ability of the human body to adjust to the environment by regulating body temperature.

Controlled by the hypothalamus, the human body has a mechanism that can change body temperature in response to whether it’s too hot or too cold for comfort. So, the aircon watch works on the principle of sending appropriate signals to the body to adjust its temperature – by applying signals of hot or cold temperature to pulse points on the wrist.

Hence, a watch.

The developers launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the watch – which can, if it delivers, also reduce the need for energy-guzzling air-conditioning – seeking HK $38,000. With nine days to go, nearly $1.5 million had been pledged.

All that remains is to see if it really works.