The device consists of a koala and an inflatable vest. If the user takes the koala and rubs its belly, a hug request is sent to a vest which is worn by the other partner. The vest contains a wireless receiver, which receives the hug request. Inside the vest there are small air compartments which inflate all around her body torso.
Source: Mueller, F. ‘Floyd’, Vetere, F., Gibbs, M. R., Kjeldskov, J., Pedell, S., and Howard, S. 2005. Hug over a distance. In Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’05). ACM Press, 1673–1676.
