Send a hug using a robotic pillow

There's something totally, totally sad about the Hug, a new wireless-enabled pillow created by robotics researchers at Carnegie Mellon University that let's you remotely send a hug to someone far away (it's mainly meant as way for grandparents and grandchildren to "stay in touch". Basically you have one person squeeze the left paw of their Hug, then say the name of the person they want to send the hug to. It then automatically calls up the Hug owned by the corresponding person, who then squeezes the left paw of their Hug to accept the hug and create a direct link between the two pillows. Then each person can use sensors to…ok, this is getting way too creepy. Just read the article.

[Guttrhead @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

"Basically you have one person squeeze the left paw of their Hug, then saw the name of the person they want to send the hug to."

Sounds like to much carpentry to me

[The Make-Out @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

Well now there's a hug robot, so what's next? A kissing robot? That would just lead to a make-out robot. This is a dangerous slippery slope. Um, no pun intended.

It's going to get to the point where we have to unplug our appliances so we aren't, uh, accosted by our electronics.

[mark @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

weird

[neetij @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

perhaps there is some use in therapy.
this has all the machinations of a japanese school-girl's monthly fad purchase.

[Ramu @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

That's pretty wierd. I go to CMU and I never heard anything about it. Of course there's wierder stuff here than that.

[Mike @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

very strange

[Nathan @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

o_O

[aeo @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

Sorry grandma... I had it set to "humping".

[StuBee @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

"If someone is not home to receive a hug, the other person can leave a message that includes voice and VIBRATION patterns"

Hmm..wonder if you can mod it.

[brucetct @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

this is stupid idea.

[the other Will H. @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

Grandma's what? But how? A pillow, you say? But how did it? Oh my. I just never figured that my disgruntled cousin would ever try something so low as strangling grandma from the comfort of his own home.

[judi @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

a way to actually receive all those cyber-hugs?

[rosaria @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

how it is possible to built same disaster like that?????
the love is virtual, the wife of plastic, and the hug from a robot....
we miss the contact, and the tecnology must discover same thing
to stay together not to continue to improve distanze for the buisness
of some body.
meat to meat is the contact.

[ugh @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

well this is a nice pillow, i want to squeeze it more and more until the copper wires hang out like a pubic boom of acne relations then pass it onto my step mother and put it set on ultra squeeze mode rendering the recipient having the last hug ever in a blissful way of creating an exit door to the other side.
nice pillow....awwwwwww.