Sunday, February 22, 2009
Bluetooth hugs demonstrated in Barcelona
One of the UK companies attracting attention at the Mobile World Congress was London-based CuteCircuit, manufacturers of the Hug Shirt 1.0. It's the latest evolution of the company's original Hug Shirt, which was featured in Time magazine's Best Inventions of the Year 2006. The new Hug Shirt 1.0 is a Bluetooth-enabled t-shirt that allows the wearer to send and receive hugs regardless of the sender's distance. Sending a hug is as simple as squeezing your own shirt. Sensors in the shirt detect the strength and position of your hug; the data is then encoded and sent via your mobile phone to the recipient's mobile, which will decode the data, causing the recipient's shirt to warm up and vibrate in the same area you hugged. It brings a whole new meaning to touch-sensitive mobiles - and it should be in the shops by the end of 2009. [UK Trade & Investment press]