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Your Facebook Likes Conveyed As Simulated Hugs

Posted by timothy on from the deep-pressure dept.

mikejuk writes "Next time you're dreaming up ways to make the users of your apps feel loved and wanted, think a little more wildly. How about giving them an actual hug? That's what MIT researchers Melissa Chow and her colleagues Andy Payne and Phil Seaton at MIT have come up with — a jacket that hugs the wearer when one of their friends 'likes' one of their posts on Facebook. The Like-A-Hug vest is described as receiving a signal when a Facebook friend 'likes' a post, then fills with air to give the wearer the sensation of being hugged."

5 of 40 comments (clear)

  1. It this a conspiracy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    They (you know who) are subtly diluting the meaning of an "actual hug"! But for what end?

    1. Re:It this a conspiracy? by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Commoditization of all human affection! The incurably Single intend to devalue all of the In A Relationships and It's Complicateds!

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      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
  2. Re:MIT has sunk to a new low. by PJ6 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That would be the surest way to kill creativity and enforce a timid mediocrity.

    Coming from MIT myself, troll, I can say that they would kick you out for your attitude.

  3. How many does it take? by AndyKron · · Score: 2

    A hugging jacket for Facebook likes? Get a fucking life! How many simultaneous hugs does it take to strangle someone?

  4. Re:Is there a smaller version? by maxwell+demon · · Score: 2

    So the corresponding Facebook-aware product would be a "Fleshlike"?

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.