Hugme

  • Gemma Morell

Imagine you being able to feel the touch of your partner hugs when kilometers of distance are between us. Time passes by and everyone’s circumstances change. Sometimes a long journey appears, and it comes with the decision of leaving h¬¬ome for a long time. But what happens when there is a relationship in between? What happens when leaving home also means leaving a partner behind? Nowadays, in a world immersed in constant communication development, which is ruled by new technologies and social media, long distance relationships are a common way of love. People practice it and maintain communication via messages, voice messages, pictures, calls and video calls; it seems to work. But in this entire new context, is there any space for the most primary human interaction? Is there any space for that way of communication which is not only about words, but senses and feelings? Is there any space for that way of communication about warmth and feeling loved with the simple touch of a hug? Hugme is the answer to all these last questions: is a cloth implanted technology developed in order to create the space where cuddles and hugs can be felt even through distance.

Hugme is a technology developed in order to simulate sensitive cuddles, affection and love and has been designed for those couples who are in long distance relationships or spend a lot of time being separated. Hugme proposes a new way of distance communication which keeps the sense of touch real and avoids the coldness of digital interaction.

The technology works because of pressure sensors and vibration motors working as actuators which are connected, by conductive threat, to an Arduino LilyPad board. The entire system is integrated into two wearables: one for each individual of the couple, and the actuators of each wearable interact with those of the other via WI-FI signal.

Hugme was selected as the featured project of the week on the Instructables platform in December 2018. More details about Hugme can be found there: https://www.instructables.com/id/HUGME/.