Like-A-Hug: A Vest That Hugs You When You Get a “Like” on Facebook
The best thing about social media is our ability to connect with close friends, distant relatives, and casual acquaintances all in one place. We love feeling connected to just about everyone we’ve ever met but a “like” on Facebook just isn’t the same as a handshake, hug, or high five.
Like-A-Hug, a project by Melissa Kit Show at the MIT Media Lab, aims to solve that disconnection.
Like-A-Hug is a wearable social media vest that inflates when friends “like” a photo, video, or status update on the wearer’s Facebook wall, allowing the person to feel all sorts of warm and fuzzy, even if the friend is miles and miles away. Hugs can be sent back to the sender (or “liker”) by squeezing the vest and deflating it.
We love the idea of attaching a physical action to a digital one, and wonder what other wearables or gadgets might reflect a similar idea.
