Huggy Pajama

Huggy Pajama is a novel wearable system aimed at promoting physical interaction in remote communication between parent and child. This system enables parent and child to hug one another through a novel hugging interface device and a wearable, hug reproducing jacket connected through the Internet. The hugging device is a small, mobile doll with embedded pressure sensing circuit that is able to sense varying levels of human force. This device sends hug signals to a haptic jacket that simulates the feeling of being hugged to the wearer. It features high fidelity, air pockets actuating to reproduce hug, heating elements to produce warmth that accompanies hug and color changing display to indicate distance of separation between the end users.

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Figure 1: System Overview

In today’s modern urban lifestyle and global 24/7 economy, working parents are constantly kept apart from their children at home by heavy over work and business trips. Children of young ages need a lot of care, guidance and love. Parents are able to reach their children by telephone, but communication purely by voice lacks the physical interaction which is vital in effective communication. As a consequence, we require a more effective way of remote communication between parents and young children. Current communication technologies allow for voice and video conversation. However these systems allow little or no physical or haptic interaction. We present the Huggy Pajama (see Figure 1 overview of system).

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Figure 2: Block Diagram of System

Huggy Pajama consists of two physical entities. On one end, we have a novel hugging interface in the form of a small and mobile doll (Figure 3) with embedded touch and pressure sensing circuit. It is connected via the Internet to a haptic wearable pajama with embedded air pockets, heating elements and color changing fabric (Figure 4). This pajama is able to simulate hug to the wearer according to the inputs from the hugging interface, as well as generate warmth to accompany the hug, display color changes according to distance of separation between parent and child (Figure 5), and displaying emoticons. Our system provides a semantically meaningful interface that can easily be understood by children and parents as a reproduction of hugging. Furthermore, hug sensation is produced in a calm and relaxing way through air, rather than through vibration or other mechanical means.

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Figure 3: Different shapes for input device

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Figure 4: Parent hugging child remotely through mobile doll device

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Figure 5: Color change on fabric by applying heat

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Figure 6: Mapping distance to color

Interaction Scenario

The following Figure 7 depicts possible user experience in interacting with the Huggy Pajama system.

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Figure 7: User experience in Huggy Pajama interaction

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ6usrx-GPM

Web : http://ipajama.wikidot.com/

Images: http://www.twango.com/channel/mxrlab.ipajama

FYP Wiki Pages

Thuong: http://ipajama-input.wikidot.com/
Lai sha: http://ipajama-display.wikidot.com
Loyyong: http://loyyong.wikidot.com
Edwin : http://edwinfyp.wikidot.com

Yin May Oo: http://projectpajama.blogspot.com/

Ben Wong: http://sites.google.com/site/benfyp0809/

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