Meet the Sense-Roid, a touchy mannequin from Japan's University of Electro-Communications. When you don a special tactile jacket and hug this torso, it gropes you right back. Strange? Verily.
Explain the Sense-Roid's creators:
What type of emotions could be obtained if you were able to hug yourself? When we hug someone, we feel a sense of ease coming from emotions such as belief, security and love. However, it is not possible to hug oneself, who is the closest person. To experience this situation, we proposed a tactile device called the Sense-Roid. The system is composed of a lay figure with tactile sensors to detect the user's caressing motion, and a tactile jacket with vibrators and artificial muscles to reflect the caressing motion to the user. As a result, users caress themselves through our Sense-Roid. We believe that this self-caressing experience will enlighten people about the value of caressing.
I'd be more sold on this device if the video's test subject wasn't sensuously hugging the Sense-Roid in a murky room with the shades closed. Anyway, here's another video of the Hugbot 9000 in action. Throw in the University of Electro-Communications' kissing machine and you've got the makings of some robo-onanism. Or is that robonanism?
[Via PopSci]