Takara Co Ltd has announced a product they call the Yumemi Koubou (Dream Viewing Workshop ), which helps users to guide their own dreams. 
The device contains an array of lights, a panel for attaching a photo or image, a fragrance dispenser, an IC voice recorder, a selection of internally stored background music, two speakers and a control panel and timer. During sleep, the device will periodically activate itself in accordance with the REM sleep cycle, softly play selected music, release fragrance and repeat pre-recorded phrases.
Takara indicates that the product has been under development for over a year, and expects to begin selling it next month (May) for about $140. Test results indicate that the device can greatly improve the odds of dreaming the dream that you wanted..at least according to Takara.
This has the appearance of being a gimmick intended to separate you from your money. However, an unrelated article in the Journal of Sleep Research Volume 10 Issue 4 Page 277 – December 2001, claims some success by researchers for verbally-influenced “incorporation into dream content”. But then again, Takara is basically a toy company, whose last product was the Bowlingual, the world’s first dog-human translation machine.
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August 7th, 2004 at 1:44 am
Hi. I read this page and I think the Dream Machine is a wonderful discovery, I’d really like to know where I can buy it. And whether the machine is going to be exported to other countries.
November 23rd, 2004 at 10:04 pm
The device costs $199usd and can be ordered at<br />
http://www.dynamism.com/dream/