The Eyebrow Auto Brake
The August 1965 issue of Popular Mechanics featured an invention called the "Eyebrow Auto Brake." It allowed drivers to brake a car by raising their eyebrows.
A screenshot of this clipping recently began circulating online, leading some people to wonder whether such an odd invention was real or satire. Snopes.com confirmed that Popular Mechanics really did feature this invention. However, they were unable to track down any more info about it.
So let me fill in some blanks. A search of a newspaper archive reveals that it was the work of Yugoslav engineer Lojze Vodovnik. His idea was that it can take up to half a second for a message to travel from the brain to the foot muscles. But it only takes a fraction of a second for the same message to reach the eyebrow muscles. So using the eyebrows to brake a car could, in theory, stop a car sooner.
Vodovnik turns out to have been quite an accomplished researcher. He was considered a pioneer in the fields of "functional electrical stimulation, biocybernetics, biomedical engineering, and rehabilitation engineering."
He studied and taught for a while in the United States, at Case Western Reserve University, but eventually headed back to Yugoslavia where he held a position at the University of Ljubljana. In Sep 2023, a monument was dedicated to him in front of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Ljubljana.
I found a reference to another oddball invention he once designed. It allowed him "to control by radio signal from his own shoulder muscle the movements of the leg of a sleeping dog." Although in the picture below the dog isn't sleeping.
More info: Lojze Vodovnik Scientist And Humanist
Popular Mechanics - Aug 1965
A screenshot of this clipping recently began circulating online, leading some people to wonder whether such an odd invention was real or satire. Snopes.com confirmed that Popular Mechanics really did feature this invention. However, they were unable to track down any more info about it.
So let me fill in some blanks. A search of a newspaper archive reveals that it was the work of Yugoslav engineer Lojze Vodovnik. His idea was that it can take up to half a second for a message to travel from the brain to the foot muscles. But it only takes a fraction of a second for the same message to reach the eyebrow muscles. So using the eyebrows to brake a car could, in theory, stop a car sooner.
Spokane Spokesman-Review - Aug 2, 1965
Cincinnati Enquirer - Jan 11, 1970 (click to enlarge)
Vodovnik turns out to have been quite an accomplished researcher. He was considered a pioneer in the fields of "functional electrical stimulation, biocybernetics, biomedical engineering, and rehabilitation engineering."
He studied and taught for a while in the United States, at Case Western Reserve University, but eventually headed back to Yugoslavia where he held a position at the University of Ljubljana. In Sep 2023, a monument was dedicated to him in front of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Ljubljana.
I found a reference to another oddball invention he once designed. It allowed him "to control by radio signal from his own shoulder muscle the movements of the leg of a sleeping dog." Although in the picture below the dog isn't sleeping.
More info: Lojze Vodovnik Scientist And Humanist
In these experiments, a K-6 telemetry unit was implanted under the skin on the shoulder of Dr. Lojze Vodovnik, an outstanding visiting scholar from Czechoslovakia to the Engineering Design Center of the Case Institute of Technology in the 1960s. In these systems, the brain generates the commands to control the shoulder muscle, the implanted telemetry unit sends EMG signals of this muscle to an FM receiver nearby, and the receiver output is the command signal for control... in Figure 18.17, an electrical stimulation unit was implanted in a dog's rear leg muscle. The EMG signal of Dr. Vodovnik was used to override and control the up and down movement of the dog's leg.
Source: Implantable bioelectronics, edited by Evgeny Katz (2014)
Source: Implantable bioelectronics, edited by Evgeny Katz (2014)
Comments
Correct me if I´m wrong but isn´t half a second and a fraction of a second the same thing ?
Posted by F.U.D. in Stockholm on 05/05/25 at 04:01 AM
F.U.D. -- Yes, that was my poor choice of words. The newspaper article specified 1/8 of a second.
Posted by Alex on 05/05/25 at 09:43 AM
Oh the things that could go so very wrong...driving on the highway during rush hour. Your coffee spills in your lap. In a shocked response you let out a yelp while raising your eye brows. Suddenly your brakes lock up & then the coffee is the least of your worries.
Posted by Teri on 05/06/25 at 12:13 AM
Being able to cause a dog to "raise" it's leg by covertly flexing a muscle could be interesting. Pointless but interesting.
Posted by Teri on 05/06/25 at 12:17 AM
At least with those huge piercings anybody would be able to spot why the guy with facial tics is stopping every five minutes.
Posted by Yudith on 05/06/25 at 05:44 AM
Category: Inventions | 1960s | Cars