You can learn a lot about what's going on inside a cat's mind by paying attention to its ear movements. If kitty is angry or tired, her ears may tilt away from her face or droop. And if your cat is on high alert, her ears will stick straight up in the air like twin sentinels.

These telling ear movements inspire Necomimi's Brainwave Controlled Cat Ears, an impossibly cute headset that theoretically puts all your mind's machinations on display. In essence, the headset reads your mind, and translates your cognitive states into prosthetic ear movements.

Pink, fuzzy ear movements. And we should expect nothing less because, come on, the Necomimi Brainwave Controlled Cat Ears are from Japan. Some of the weirdest technology, fashion, and fetishes come from the Land of the Rising Sun, and now one of J-pop's hottest imports is available in the U.S. – Necomimi's official stateside launch was Thursday.

Wearing the headset is a surreal experience. The ears reveal enough information about your mood to be quirky and entertaining, but not so much that you feel like your privacy is being betrayed by a feline-inspired headband. They're simultaneously fun and whimsical, but also a bit taboo in the context of the whole furry things (SFW) movement.

What it's like wearing the Necomimi headset. GIF: Roberto Baldwin/Wired

This brainwave headset works the same way as the Mindwave Mobile Brainwave Headset that we checked out earlier this year. It's an EEG headset that measures your "brainwaves" (changes in electrical activity) with a sensor on your forehead. Two sensors that press against your earlobe act as a reference for the forehead sensor. Electrical noise is filtered out, and the resulting signals can be identified and categorized into three states: relaxation, focus, or interest.

When you're relaxed, the ears droop down. If something catches your attention, they'll perk up, and if you're in a state of "high interest," they'll start to wiggle. After a two- to three-minute calibration period where one ear is down and one is up, the ears cycle through all their possible states depending on what's going on inside your head.

The Necomimi headset is far more comfortable than the Mindwave Mobile Headset. The top of the headset is composed of two thin, bendable plastic pieces, and a soft elastic strap fits across the back of your head to ensure a snug fit. The battery pack, which holds four AAA batteries, is located above the left ear. Between the battery pack and the ear mechanisms, the headset has some heft to it, but it's not altogether uncomfortable – more on that later.

The mobile ears provided some insight into my daily brain patterns that I never really noticed before. Flossing my teeth? A very relaxing activity, apparently. I also learned that I'm very focused when someone first starts speaking to me, but relax a bit as they continue talking. Looking at cat pictures? My ears relayed that I was "highly interested." Alright, no surprise there, but it was illuminating to see how focused I was doing something as simple as checking email.

Unfortunately, the Necomimi cat ears don't function purr-fectly all the time (sorry, we had to). Occasionally, the headset seemed to get caught in some sort of infinite loop in which the ears went crazy, twisting back and forth, over and over. This was only remedied by switching the headset off and on again.

The motors inside the ear mechanisms make a good bit of noise if you're in total silence, but if there's any degree of ambient noise going on, you'll be the only person who will notice the whirring.

After more than 30 to 45 minutes of wear, my earlobe began to hurt from the constant applied pressure of the ear sensor. My head would also start to ache a bit from the pressure of the headband – but then again, I'm sensitive to wearing headbands in general, so others may find they can go much longer wearing the Necomimi before experiencing any discomfort. Regardless, it was easily fixed by just taking off the ears for a bit, then popping them back on.

The Necomimi headset certainly isn't for anyone who wants to blend into the crowd. Even in San Francisco, where all manner of weirdness is practically mundane, the furry ears turned the heads of coworkers and strangers on the street who wanted to know more. Priced at $100, some may find a Benjamin hard to swallow for a glorified pair of cat ears.

By the middle of the day, Necomimi actually started to feel like a natural part of my wardrobe – and lifestyle. I got used to the whirring of the actuators hidden underneath the plush ears, and could at times control my mind enough to enter a relaxed or alert state on a whim. When someone would walk by and exclaim "What are those?!" it would take me a moment to realize what they were so surprised about.

Now I want a brain-controlled tail to match.