I was thinking last night about hugging. Hugging is a funny thing really. I know why we do it, it’s nice and all that, but I wonder what it is that makes us hug? Then I wondered if maybe humans are the only animals that hug. I can’t really remember seeing animals hug or show each other the same kind of physical affection. I mean the other day as I was driving through Wales (killing wildlife) I didn’t see any sheep locked in embrace. I can’t imagine a sheep seeing another that they hadn’t seen for a while and greeting it with a hug.
Do we need to hug one another? Is there some inbuilt need within all of us to hold another? Not sex, not love, but just connection? A quick Google revealed that one robotics researchers at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh feel that we do indeed need hugs. They have developed a rather creepy robotic pillow that can give you a hug via a wireless phone as you speak to a friend or family member.
The ugly robotic hug pillow is shaped like a person about to give a hug, with two arms reaching up and out from a small torso. To remotely send a hug the parties involved both have to have one of these freaky pillows. The hugger then has to speak the name of the person they want to hug into a mic on their robotic hug pillow while squeezing its left paw. Using voice recognition software it then identifies the intended recipient of the hug and then contacts that person own robotic ugly hug pillow making it light up and play a sound.
The ‘hugee’ then squeezes the left paw on the pillow and says hello. Squeezes or pats of the pillow are picked up by sensors then converted into a data stream that is sent to the other otherwise lifeless hug pillow. Thermal fibers around the Hug’s belly radiate heat that increases with time. If someone is not home to receive a hug, the other person can leave a message that includes voice and vibration patterns.
Francine Gemperle, a researcher who worked on the project explained that the robotic hug pillow is purely experimental and there is no hope that it will be mass produced any time soon. “It would need to go through product development, where people may want to change its appearance and make it more adaptable to different-sized people.”
I find it hard to believe that squeezing a bag of beans is ever going to replace the feeling of hugging another person, in the same way that shagging a a blow doll surely can’t be that rewarding! But if people are researching ways to remotely hug it must tell us something about our strange, and dare I suggest, unique need to hold another.
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Need a Hug? A Robotic Pillow Can Help
Carnegie Mellon University
Wrote the following comment on Jan 31, 2006 at 6:49 am
My cat hugs me. When I come home he’s usually waiting on the back of the sofa for me to pick him up and usually puts his front legs around my neck and rubs his face on mine. I don’t know if it’s really a hug or if he’s just holding on while I pick him up.. but it feels like a hug and I look forward to it.If there was a machine that simulates human contact I’d rather have one that rubs my feet or washes my hair.
Wrote the following comment on Jan 31, 2006 at 11:48 am
I think I also heard about the autistic girl and the hug machine on the TV show ‘Six Feet Under.’ There was an episode in the second season about a woman called Emily Previn who lived a life alone and died alone. Nat was quite disturbed that anyone could live like this and somewhere in that episode I’m sure they mentioned that woman with autism.
As for cats hugging, well I’m not saying animals don’t, but they certainly don’t as much as humans do and I wonder why that is.
Wrote the following comment on Jan 31, 2006 at 12:53 pm
people need hugs! i think you need a real good hug, simon. i think monkeys hug. penguins can’t hug but nuzzle (i saw it in the movie march of the penguins). i think animals without arms they nuzzle.
Wrote the following comment on Jan 31, 2006 at 6:33 am
My daughter Alli was diagnosed with autism when she was 3 years old. As a panicked parent I bought several books related to autism because I really didnt know what it was and when my dr gave me the diagnosis he said, ” I am really sorry, but I think she has autism” and sent us to a psych. I wanted to die…it was like a death sentence. I read this book about a woman who “overcame” her disability and became a very successful writer…a poet. She discovered that when she was feeling overwhelmed she needed a deep hug. Her parents were very determined to not let her autism get way of her success and did not treat her any different than the rest of the children. So she went to college and did day to day stuff….she “invented” a hug machine that was kept in the barn..and when things got tough…she went out to the barn for her “deep hug”…it helped her to cope with the confusion and frustration that comes with autism. Whenever my daughter is really upset I give her a deep hug….she immediately calms down. The upside to this is that the hug also calms me down. Hugs are very beneficial. Great observation and info :)
Wrote the following comment on Jan 31, 2006 at 11:39 pm
Maybe I’m reading Edith’s comment wrong here, but I’m not saying I don’t like, or don’t see what all the fuss is about when it comes to hugs. I’m merely saying it’s interesting that in the animal world you don’t see them hugging hello and goodbye and stuff like that. :-)
Wrote the following comment on Jan 31, 2006 at 4:44 pm
I see hugs as an acceptable way to touch one another and all people need to be touched. I love a good solid hug but a halting, tentative hug has no satisfaction at all.
Wrote the following comment on Feb 1, 2006 at 5:18 am
Do we kiss? Yes, and.. No.
I might greet a female friend with a kiss and a hug. But it’s not really a hug, it’s more like a shoulder grip so that I can kiss her and she kiss me. But it’s not really a kiss, it’s more like a glancing peck with that “mwooah” sound effect one does when kissing but not smooching.
I would greet a guy with a handshake, a nice firm handshake too. The exception to this would be if he was, say, returning from war and I knew him as a close friend. Then I would hug him. But a special kind of ‘man hug’ that would usually involve a slap or three on the back to denote it’s ‘maleness.’
As a heterosexual Englishman born of this Royal land, there is simply no circumstance where I would feel it were called for or acceptable for me to kiss another man. Should I find myself dying a dramatic death on the deck of a warship, one would not hear me utter a request for a kiss from any of my fellow shipmates lest they be a beautiful soft skinned maiden. :-)
Wrote the following comment on Feb 1, 2006 at 1:46 am
Hmmmm I used to watch Six Feet Under….and I think you are right about that episode. I hated the last episode it was stupid the way they ended it. I thought people in Europe, maybe not England, people kissed each other on the cheek as a greeting. I would die. Americans will shake hands, we are told the stronger the handshake the more important and confident you appear…..I am a germophobe….so I always give the limp fish shake so they do not want to do it again…then discreetly use my hand sanitizer. I can’t imagine having to run to the restroom to “sanitize” my cheek. If I was an animal….I could just lick my fur immediately…and hey its acceptable. OR just growl or hiss…as a way of saying….back off you smelly animal. :)
Wrote the following comment on Feb 1, 2006 at 10:32 am
What is the sender actually wanted to punch you? And if the technology really got off the ground heaven only knows what the sex industry would do with it! :-D
Wrote the following comment on Feb 1, 2006 at 10:13 am
That huggy pillow is quite odd. What if it shorted out on you? Say the hug sender was a bit over zealous? Can you say, “broken ribcage” or “crushed trachea”?
Wrote the following comment on Feb 2, 2006 at 6:23 am
As much as I can understand your germ fears, I would point out that I am still alive and have been alive all these years without too much trouble. I would also point out that BILLIONS of people are also alive in areas strewn with a lot more germs than you would be able to think about! The ironic thing is that germophobes get sick more than non-germophobes precisely because they do go to such lengths to not expose themselves to germs.
Wrote the following comment on Feb 2, 2006 at 3:10 am
Ok….I could handle the muwah. Physical affection from people I do not know ick! Btw…hand shaking and why I am a germophobe…ahem…People do not wash their hands after restroom, eating, smoking, nose picking and touching door knobs that a million other people touched. You are exposed to trillions of bacteria daily just by going to the grocery store,school or work. Then you eat that sandwhich for lunch. Mmmm. Keep the handshakes and kisses to yourself is my motto!