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Tokyo school takes Facebook Poking to a creepy new level (video)
You've got to hand it to Tokyo's University of Electro-Communications, the school's researchers have presented some truly unique methods for interfacing with our electronics -- fake finger sliding, a head-mounted video display, a thing that makes it feel like you've got insects on your palm, and, of course, the old kissing machine. A few recent inventions have expanded the latter trend, giving us creative new ways of getting intimate with our machines. There's the tickle interface, for one, which beams images from a connected smartphone creating the illusion that the person on the other end is tickling your palm -- made all the more real by tactile vibration hooked up to the rear of the device. And then there's the older, oddly-named Sense-Roid, sort of a clunkier version of the Hug Shirt, which, among other things, lets you "hug yourself." Both are demonstrated in a pair of videos after the break. Whatever you do, don't miss the second one.
Studio 5050's embrace-me hoodie lights up when hugged
Believe it or not, the concept here isn't revolutionary at all, but Studio 5050 is revising the old huggable shirt idea by infusing an ultra-soft hoodie with a pattern made of "silver conductive fabric." When two people wearing the embrace-me hoodies, um, embrace one another, energy is transferred and a pattern on the back lights up while a heartbeat sound is emitted. Quite frankly, we can't imagine this not boosting the hugs-per-day in a typical relationship, but at $480 to $600 per pair, counseling may come out a bit cheaper in the end.[Via OhGizmo]
