There must be many lonely souls in Japan. How else would one find crazy number of life-like sex dolls and bizarre inventions like hologram girlfriend (and someone even marrying it), and a Woman’s Hand iPhone Case? Speaking woman’s hand iPhone case… a university in Japan has taken the concept of holding a girl’s hand even further.
Researchers at Gifu University have developed a robotic hand of sort that lets you experience the feeling of holding a girl’s hand. Aptly called My Girlfriend in Walk, this high-tech girlfriend, or part of a girlfriend, is outfitted with a microcomputer, pressure sensor, motor, film heater and soft, skin-like material, and works with a companion app.
The tactile experience of holding a person’s hand is replicated via the soft gel material to simulate human skin while the film heater, along with a damp cloth in between the robotic hand and gel material, offers human-like warm and any sweat that may emits from a hand.
It can even recreate the smell of a particular person too, just by adding fragrances. But just how you describe the smell of a person you are stalking to the researchers is beyond me.
The aforementioned pressure sensor is also a key component in recreating a life-like hand-holding experience. It detects the strength of your grip and returns in kind. You know, like a real person.
As the project name suggests, My Girlfriend in Walk is the experience of walking with a girlfriend. To simulate this, a motor on a rail worn on the user’s forearm reproduces the feeling a person falling behind or walking too fast by tugging the wearer’s arm forward or backward, and it can pump out various sound effects through the smartphone’s speakers to create footsteps, breathing, and even rustling of clothes of the other “person” when walking.
I know right. It’s a crazy invention. But it is not without purposed. My Girlfriend in Walk is designed with the goal to help alleviate loneliness and offer exercise for sedentary people. I am guessing what they are saying are people who are single and couch potatoes? Hmmm, I wonder Gifu University has a male version for ladies?
Images: YouTube (岐阜大学 木島研).
Source: Oddity Central.
