I remember about six months ago when I wrote about a tech jacket that inflates and hugs (squeezes) you whenever you receive a Facebook like on your page. It is a way to convert online ‘likes’ into IRL hugs. It seems a bit bizarre, but I’m sure some people get into it. Now it seems that 30-year-old James Teh has taken this concept and refined it. He’s created a way for parents to hug their children when they can’t be there in person to give them a real hug.
James also uses a tech jacket to make this happen, and again, it inflates to simulate a hug. It’s called the T.Jacket System, and it is a way to soothe children who get stressed easily. By using the accompanying Android app, the parents and/or therapists can detect when the child is becoming distressed or when activity levels are too high, and then remotely apply pressure through the tech jacket. The child will supposedly interpret this in the same way as a hug might feel, and he or she will calm down.
James envisions this being a jacket that could really help autistic children. He said, “Most of them suffer from sensory processing difficulties that make them hypo or hyper-sensitive to external stimuli like loud noises and unfamiliar faces and objects. T.Jacket is used to help children with autism because we’ve realized that a lot of autistic children crave deep pressure and benefit from deep pressure therapy.”
This tech jacket even has settings, so you can send a soft, medium or super tight hug. This will be hitting the market in September, and it will cost $399. Dang, that seems expensive, especially when you think about all the people who give out free hugs.
Tech Jacket & App Simulate Hugging Your Child
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