TECHNOLOGY
Huggable mobile phone robot from Japan
Two young people hugging their Hugvie huggable mobile phone robots as they talk to their loved oneswho are far away.
Japanese robotics professor invents new way to share a hug with your loved onesduring long distance phone calls.
Are you far from your loved one?
Suffering from long-distance relationshipfatigue?
If so, a Japanese robotics professor may have already invented the mobile phoneaccessory you need.
His new invention is a human-shaped robotic pillow that pulses to shareemotions from afar over a mobile phone. The pillow was given the name Hugvie because the idea is that you hug the pillowas you talk to your loved one.
Your mobile phone is placed in a pocket in the side of the pillow and as your loved one talks over the phone, the pillowcreates a vibration that follows the sound of their voice. The speed and strength of the pulse is controlled by your loved one's tone of voice.
The device is an attempt to make phone conversations a more intimate and physicalaffair.
The new device is the fruit of research by Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University.
Professor Ishiguro based the shape of the Hugvie on another invention of his but hopes to refine the technology to provide a robot "really feels like a person while you're hugging it." The Hugvie is available for ¥3,990 (about $50) from the Vstone robot shop. He is also famous for his lifelike Geminoid Twin robot: