Extra-creepy technology

Dale Amon at Samizdata links to a report about an especially disturbing new techno-toy:

A special headset was placed on my cranium by my hosts during a recent demonstration at an NTT research center.

It sent a very low voltage electric current from the back of my ears through my head — either from left to right or right to left, depending on which way the joystick on a remote-control was moved.

I found the experience unnerving and exhausting: I sought to step straight ahead but kept careening from side to side. Those alternating currents literally threw me off. [. . .]

It's a mesmerizing sensation similar to being drunk or melting into sleep under the influence of anesthesia. But it's more definitive, as though an invisible hand were reaching inside your brain.