This Vest 'Hugs' You With Every Facebook 'Like'

Like-a-Hug inflates to make you feel the love
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 6, 2012 3:25 PM CDT

Yes, we do enjoy those Facebook "likes" more than we usually admit—but is Like-a-Hug the answer? Designed by Melissa Kit Chow at MIT Media Lab, the "social media vest" will "hug" you by inflating whenever someone likes a status update, video, or photo you've posted on Facebook, reports Jezebel. Hugs can even be returned to the sender "by squeezing the vest and deflating it," according to Chow's website.

But Jezebel's article isn't exactly aglow. "Ugh, no," writes Katie Baker, who advises Chow to "put all that brainpower towards devising a 3D printer that spits out breakfast sandwiches or something." Over at NBC, Devin Coldeway points out that the vest is still an art object "unlikely to be made into a real project," but he could imagine its basic idea used in subtler ways—like "a jacket that taps you on the shoulder when you get a text message, for instance." (More Facebook stories.)

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