Men's love beeper

Blue plastic coated object moulded in the shape of a bean and attached to a metal keyring. It is the male version of an electronic device designed to attract members of the opposite sex, the female version being pink.

The device has five settings from which a person can select the one which most reflects their interest: eating out, drinking, shopping, going to the cinema and romance. When two people carrying these devices pass each other they beep at once. If each device has been programmed with the same interest they will beep and flash continuously to suggest a love match.

A thousand of these devices were given a trial at one of Sainsbury's Finchley Road stores in North London. A customers could pick one up when they entered the store but had to hand it back when they left. It is not known if these devices were tried out at any of Sainsbury's other stores.

The device appear to have originated in Japan in 1998 where it was known as a 'lovegety'.