[Lamplighter]

There should be such a thread this thing....

Slashgear.com
Eric Abent
Oct 5th 2012

New vest inflates when you receive Likes on Facebook

A group of scientists at MIT have developed a new vest
that you can link to your Facebook account.
Why would you want to link a vest, of all things, to your Facebook account?
Because when people “Like” something that you’ve posted,
the vest automatically inflates. <snip>

That sounds awfully weird at first, but there’s actually a rather touching reason for its existence.
The idea of this vest – which has been dubbed Like-A-Hug –
is to simulate the feeling of receiving a hug from your friends.

“The vest inflates when friends ‘Like’ a photo, video, or status update
on the wearer’s wall, thereby allowing us to feel the warmth, encouragement,
support, or love that we feel when we receive hugs,” designer Melissa Chow
writes on her website. Chow developed the vest with Andy Payne and Phil Seaton at the MIT Media Lab.

But wait, because it gets even better – by squeezing and deflating your vest,
you can make the vest of the person who Liked your post inflate, essentially giving them a hug back.

BTW, one "ad choice" that came with the link was for "Other inflatable items".