Fear Away

One of Oskar's main weaknesses is that he fears so many things. When a person experiences fear, it is accompanied by an increase of heart rate. The invention that I am proposing would use this fact to act as a trigger. The invention would be a low profile necklace which would be equipped with a heart monitor. When a sudden spike in heart rate occurs, a hood unrolls from the necklace and closes loosely around the head. Although the appearance of the hood on the outside is plain and gray, inside is a screen which presents a calming or happy place of the occupant's choosing. The hood would filter the air to allow for clean air to breathe as well as muffling the noise to a low volume, allowing the occupant to calm themselves more efficiently. However, because the surrounding noise could be important to the safety of those wearing the hood, the volume can be adjusted. Using voice commands, the wearer could command the hood to produce a tunnel vision so mobility would not be restricted and they could extract themselves from the situation.

This invention would be particularly useful when Oskar is visiting the different Blacks and has to cross the bridge on his own without any support (pg 87). Since the hood has tunnel vision, Oskar would be able to cross the bridge without experiencing the height or seeing the openness on either side which are things that cause his fear.