Do you struggle to get off work at home, but don’t have a cat to walk all over your keyboard? Samsung might just have the companion for you.
In hopes of encouraging work-life balance, the South Korean tech giant dreamed up an endearing smart device—literally modeled to look like a mouse—that runs away when you work past office hours.
The Samsung Balance Mouse concept, created alongside created with advertising agency INNORED and design studio BKID co, appears as a regular wireless computer mouse at first. However, when it’s time to knock off, its ears prick up and it escapes your clutch so you won’t be able to click away anymore.
If you manage to catch the computer mouse, it quickly sheds its shell, fleeing again through its inner body of blue and pink gradients. There’s no point chasing the mouse afterwards, because it can sense when you’re near.
The spec project was introduced back in 2018 but would be much needed in the current work-from-home period. It was envisioned following statistics stating that 70-percent of workers in South Korea were overworked.
The number might have risen by now. A new study by Oracle suggests that nearly 80-percent of the global workforce have experienced a deterioration in mental health.
The Samsung Balance Mouse may not be a real product, but there are other—albeit less adorable—ways to manage your mental wellbeing. For example, you might want to assign spaces at home that are strictly for business, and avoid bringing work to bed. When it’s time to log off, retreat to your designated relaxation spots and wind down with some music or put a movie on.