Hugvie is a new vibrating pillow robot here to help you avoid loneliness. It's basically a "huggable" human-shaped pillow with a slot for your cell phone. You can plug your phone into this "Telenoid" and converse with your friends and loved ones while hugging a robot pillow piping their voice through its built-in speaker system to you.Hugvie is also equipped with its own heartbeat and a vibration system that adapts to the callers voice, becoming faster and more intense depending upon the volume and pitch of the conversation. Which makes me think of a few things people are likely to do with their Hugvies. Which unsettles me.The Hugvie is the latest invention of Professor Ishiguro of Osaka University. He sees his product as a tool to help connect loved ones and family members separated by distance and hopes it could be especially popular with older adults talking to their children and grandchildren. I find this mental image – grandparents worldwide calling their loved ones while cuddling a bizarre, pastel miniature human — upsetting.Professor Ishiguro is famous for his work creating life-like androids. Earlier this year, in conjunction with a Valentine's Day marketing campaign for Japanese department store Takashimiya, Ishiguro installed a humanoid dummy capable of 60 distinct facial expressions in the store's display window. The robot interacted with passersby, yawning and winking at people near the window.As odd and creepy as the Hugvie initially seems, I think Ishiguro's invention fulfills a real need. Social animals crave physical touch and comfort. Humans cradle dolls and teddy bears in their youth to soothe themselves. Chimpanzees and other primates commonly carry stuffed animals (in zoos). Often, when an animal gives birth to young that dies, she will "adopt" some other available inanimate object, like a dog toy, to ease her grief.Our connections have become more cerebral. We can maintain closeness with our friends by observing their lives through social media, engaging with them occasionally in the real world. But there's something important about holding someone you care about, and this cell phone pillow attempts to bridge the physical distance often separating loved ones.Ishiguro projects that interaction with the Hugvie could evolve into an even more convincing experience. He feels confident that he could eventually adapt the construction of the pillow to make it feel more lifelike. Human beings, alone in their apartments, hugging lifelike androids with fake pulses and 60 distinct facial expressions. Welcome to the future?Follow Kelly Bourdet on Twitter
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