JAPANESE company Ogiri Printing’s newest brainchild, the Kamihime, is a paper notepad.

There’s nothing old-fashioned about how it’s meant to be used.

For starters, you’re not supposed to whip out your Kamihime when your brain is firing, but when your stomach is rumbling. Opening the cover produces a sudden burst of 97-decibel noise. By comparison, the sound of a lawnmower is only about 90 decibels, and so opening your Kamihime is supposed to mask the sound of your stomach rumbling during a meeting or lecture, which Ogiri and Eins hope will help save users from a bit of embarrassment.

Though it’s made of paper (specifically materials left over after regular printing processes), you can eat the notepad. Granted, they won’t taste like much … unless you use the pen that’s included with the notepad, which writes in edible ink with a coffee flavor.

As weird as the idea may seem, it could actually prove useful, since in Japan snacking during meetings and classes is generally frowned upon. Ostensibly, you’re supposed to eat the pages of your Kamihime in a more discrete manner than the presenter in the video does, letting you surreptitiously suppress stomach rumblings until the session wraps up and you can get some real food.

Also, if you’ll excuse us for being crass, it seems like the noise made by opening the Kamihime cover could also be highly effective in covering the sound of a fart you just can’t hold in any longer (though this use isn’t specifically mentioned by the designers).

While it’s still in the design and testing phase, Ogiri says is serious about actually bringing Kamihime, which means “Paper Princess” to market.

(SD-Agencies)