We need a palate cleanser/tension breaker while we wait for Wisconsin results, and this one’s got it all — neat-o gizmos, a timely nanny-state tie-in, and the evergreen “Japan sure is weird” angle.

The good news? With the patented new Freakydeaky goggles, you can virtually supersize your government-regulated 16-ounce soda to make it a Big Gulp. The bad news? Since it’d be “unfair” for the rich alone to have these, eventually we’ll either be told we need to subsidize the goggles or we’ll endure Fluke-an demands that insurers everywhere cover the expense, which means higher premiums for everyone.

Second look at Bloomberg’s soda ban instead?

On one device goggle-mounted cameras send images to a computer, which magnifies the apparent size of the cookie in the image it displays to the wearer while keeping his hand the same size, making the snack appear larger than it actually is.

In experiments, volunteers consumed nearly 10 percent less when the biscuits they were eating appeared 50 percent bigger.

They ate 15 percent more when cookies were manipulated to look two-thirds of their real size…

In another project, Hirose’s team developed a “meta cookie”, where the headgear uses scent bottles and visual trickery to fool the wearer into thinking the snack they are eating is anything but a plain biscuit.

Actually, in due time, it probably won’t be terribly difficult to add this to the iPhone — or better yet, Google goggles — as some sort of diet app. Just hold the phone in front of your face, point the lens on the other side at an Entenmann’s box, and voila: You’re eating a chocolate donut that’s bigger than your own head. Where will power is wanting, my friends, technology will provide. Exit question: Hey, how come soda consumption is unlimited at Bloomberg HQ?