The world is definitely a great deal smaller than it was 20 years ago. Still, there are wonderful things to learn about how the various global cultures view the opposite sex - and how they seek out relationships. Choosing a mate, or as we so lovingly call it here in the US, picking up mates, still varies greatly from place to place. To wit, there's a new toy called the Lovegety that is quickly picking up where the Tamagotchi craze dropped off. It's all about getting Lovegety-wearing singles together.

　　The Lovegety is a small egg-shaped device that comes in boy blue and girl pink colors. The Tamagotchi-sized device has a few different modes of communication. But the key component of the Lovegety is that if it comes within 15 feet of an "opposite sexed" Lovegety, it responds - with a beep and a light.

　　Responses are set by the user who gets to choose "modes" like a simple chat, ready to sing karaoke, and the highest mode, Get2 - where one unit tells the other that its user is set to do anything. When "contact" is made, a high pitched beeper goes off to inform its user of a possible encounter. And as the units get closer, signals are sent back and forth. If it seems like a good match, a green light goes off on the Lovegety.

　　Who thinks this stuff up? Well, Takeya Takafuji came up with the idea when a friend said he'd like to have a gadget that would inform a potential mate of his feelings quickly. Takafuji turned to a German-based company Erfolg with the idea, and after a year of work, the Lovegety was launched.

　　Takafuji says that the devices serve a major purpose in Japan because Japanese men are naturally shy, and the devices help to make the whole process of hooking up with girls easier and less embarrassing.

　　Since its introduction in February, 350,000 Lovegety's have been sold. They retail for 2,900 yen (about US$24).

　　The little love devices should be showing up in Britain in the next few months, and an expansion into China is being discussed. There's no information about the units showing up here on American soil, but considering the US's love of Tamagotchi, someone will probably be pushing to bring the Lovegety here.

　　Here in the US, we might need a unisex Lovegety since the units currently only respond to units of the opposite sex.