(from cntv.cn)
If virtual shooting is too violent for you, how about a virtual hug? From London to Singapore, one science project is taking the world by storm. It’s the virtual “Like-a-Hug” class assignment, produced by a joint MIT-Harvard course last year.
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MIT students have created a jacket that allows the wearer to be hugged remotely. It’s known as the “Like-a-Hug”. This is a newly refurbished working prototype of a class assignment they designed last year for a joint MIT-Harvard Tangible Interface course.
The idea was to link Facebook “likes” to the physical world via a mechanical hug. |
The gadget, quite simply, is a fan-inflatable vest linked to a computer by a single controlled micro controller. But why all the hype over one simple school project?
Harvard graduate student Melissa Kit Chow said, “I think it’s the idea that it’s a hug – something that is supposed to be more of an intimate gesture between two people – and it’s starting to be explored over virtual space where it can be almost anyone.”
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However on the streets of Boston the prevailing view is that a virtual hug can’t replace the real thing. And neuropsychologist Dr. Andrea Piatt of the Commonwealth Psychology Associates agrees.
Neuropsychologist Dr. Andrea Piatt said, “Actual human touch has the capacity to lower anxiety, lower stress, reduce blood pressure, lower people’s heart rates, so there is a lot of potential benefits.” |