Consider, if you will, the necktie. (Not being Diane Keaton in the early Nineties, I never do.) Consider it, and wonder why such an outmoded item of clothing has been geekified so many times, especially since geeks tend to favor tee-shirts. Apart from last year's solar-powered version, Adam wrote about my favorite, the USB-powered one with a fan in the knot, providing cool relief to overheated office workers everywhere. That, my friends (to use a Frucci phrase) came from japanese company Thanko, purveyors of unspeakably weirdo gadgets aimed at bringing out the inner nerd in you.

And so, fresh on the heels of the video camera watch, of which Thanko does a version, comes the camera necktie. A spy tie. Not a mai tai, or tie-die, not even a hi-fi. A spy tie. Amidst its slightly trippy spotted design is a tiny lens, behind which lies a 4GB camera, ready for you to record that moment when you spilt egg on your neckwear. It's even remote controlled so that you can just act completely normal and pretend to be checking the loose change in your pocket while you turn it on and film your boss doing something he shouldn't be doing.

The spy tie costs $128, and something tells me it's not made of silk. Resolution is 352 x 288 pixels, and you can record for around four hours. Windows compatible, it connects, of course, to your PC via — wait for it — USB. There's a zipper down the back of the tie, so the seriously fashion-forward amongst you may want to think about wearing it reversed. Then examination of your navel can be done at a more leisurely pace, and in the privacy of your own home.

[Thanko via Akihabara News]