They plan to equip handsets with a large light emitting matrix to generate scrolling or blinking symbols recognizeable up to four meters away.

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Students said it helped in daily life, too, enabling them to read people by detecting the slight hesitation or rapid blinking that signals a bluff.

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Engineers could control which bits of the eyes were illuminated in a specific colour, to make the toy appear as if it was rolling its eyeballs, blinking, or showing two small throbbing hearts.

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Yet somehow between transactions the postmistress had snuck away for a tattling phone call, or so we surmised from the blinking patrol car that now swept up in front of the P.

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If one is looking out their living room window, would you prefer to see a blinking traffic light all night or a beautifully landscaped roundabout with a fountain and flowers?

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Dr. Daniel Hanley, professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins Medicine, in Maryland, told CNN that VS is a coma-like state in which patients have a sleep and wake cycle, and can show reflex chewing, swallowing and blinking, but don't respond to language or stimulation.

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