Can't go to a party? Why not hire a replacement 'human Uber' instead?

Fear of missing out (or FOMO, as it is referred to commonly) is the anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may be happening elsewhere - a feeling exacerbated by social media and constant updates on everyone's whereabouts.

It seems there might finally be an answer with a technology that allows you to send human surrogates to represent you at events you cannot attend in person - whether a party, a meeting or a date. Finally, we can be everywhere at once.

The Chameleon Mask, a product showcased at this week's EmTech Asia conference in Singapore, has been dubbed the the "human Uber", according to an MIT Tech writer.

The mask works by strapping a smartpad to the face of a human "surrogate". The 'director' will then command them to travel wherever they need to be with the director's face and voice projected through the smartpad.

According to the Chameleon Mask website: "[The] Chameleon Mask is a telepresence system that shows a remote user's face on the other user's face. While most telepresence systems have been designed to provide a remote user's existence with a teleoperated robot, the system uses a real human as a surrogate for another remote user.

"This design is based on our hypothesis assuming physical and social telepresence can be embodied by such a surrogate human who imitates the remote user. It also eliminates many difficulties of teleoperated robots wandering in the environment.

"Our pilot study confirmed that people could regard the masked person as a right person," it added.

For those thinking that the concept seems familiar somehow, people have been quick to point out similar inventions from their favourite television programmes.

Over a decade ago, for example, US TV series Arrested Development featured a similar concept through the character Larry Middleman, who had a camera attached to his forehead along with an earpiece feeding back to George Bluth.

Other resemblances were also tweeted: