After the digital pets, Japans latest contribution to alternative technology is the "lovegety', which aims to get lonely hearts fixed up with blind dates. It is basically a thumb-sized transmitter-receiver. If a man's lovegety picks up a signal from a woman's lovegety (and vice versa) less than 10 metres away, it starts flashing, encouraging owners to talk to each other ( New Scientist , Vol 158, No 2136).