A couple days ago, I covered the kiss transmission device from Kajimoto Laboratories here. The good scientists at Kajimoto Laboratories are looking to hack and replicate more of the tactile human experience than mere kissing.
The group also is working on something called the Sense-Roid which provides mechanical hugs. Their headless lovebots have artificial musculature and vibrators in the torso area, in order to replicate the feeling of being hugged. Their web site has a number of appealing photos for this machine, showing people looking awfully pleased to be hugging a robot. The bots respond to hugging from a human and are intended to give a person some of the benefits of hugging, which will provide huggers “a sense of ease coming from emotions such as belief, security and love” and hopefully “enlighten people about the value of caressing”.
I kind of want one of these.
