Dr. Blinky serves as a physical, blinking extension of your smartphone's notification bar. In other words, it's a beeper for a mobile world.

Dr. Blinky helps keep you connected... to your own phone.

(Credit: Dr. Blinky )

Industrial designer Kotaro Shimogori has taken to crowdfunding site Indiegogo to raise funds for a Bluetooth-powered appliance that functions as a physical extension of your smartphone's notifications bar. But if you lived through the 1990s with me, you probably recognize Dr. Blinky for what it really is -- the resurrection of the pager with a 21st century spin.

In a nutshell, Dr. Blinky connects to an app on yourAndroid phone (the iOS app is in progress) that you can configure to blink whenever you want to be notified of a new call, text, e-mail, or whatever. Dr. Blinky can also be set to blink in different patterns for different types of notifications.

So if being separated from your phone by the few layers of fabric that make up your purse or your pocket just seems unbearable, perhaps you'll want to chip in a few bucks to the campaign.

Perhaps Shimogori should join forces with the team behind another Indiegogo campaignwe've reported on lately to see if Dr. Blinky might also clip to your license plate to help outsmart red light camerasThe crowdfunding project has just gotten started, and early birds who pledge $25 or more can be first in line for one of the 21st century beepers. The site claims the devices will eventually have a retail price of $70.