Wearable touch

The Hug Shirt™ is a shirt that lets you send hugs over distance! Embedded in the Hug Shirt™ there are actuators that recreate the sensation of touch and the emotion of a hug to the Hug Shirt™ of a distant loved one.

The style of the HugShirt changed over the years to become more streamlined. The new HugShirt features sensor areas similar to the original design from 2002 but in a cutting edge multi-colour digital print.

The Hug Shirt™ connects Bluetooth to your phone thanks to the HugShirt App and records a hug like you would record a movie, it then delivers the hug data over the network to your friend’s phone and it is immediately transmitted via Bluetooth to their Hug Shirt™! You can also hug your friends in real-time all over the world, if you all have the HugShirt App open at the same time, even multiple friends at the same time!

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Sending hugs is as easy as chatting, you are able to send hugs while you are on the move, in the same way and to the same places you are able to make phone calls (Rome to Tokyo or New York to Paris).

The system is very simple: a Hug Shirt™ (Bluetooth), a Bluetooth enabled phone with the Hug Shirt™ App running (it understands what the sensors are communicating), and on the other side of the world another phone and another Hug Shirt™. If you do not have a Hug Shirt™ but know that your friend has one you can still send them a hug creating it with the Hug Shirt™ App and it will still be delivered to your friend’s Hug Shirt™ in real time!

We continue to evolve the HugShirt and create new designs every season. The latest version of the App is super cool!

Tech Specs

• Rechargeable (USB-C)
• 12 Haptic micro-actuators
• App controlled, download the Q App on the App Store
• Haptics (touch communication)
• Bluetooth 5
• Oekotex certified textiles, no pesticides and no harmful substances
• Heat-bonded construction for flat hems
• No wires! Only smart fabrics
• Designed in London
• RoHS, FCC, CE, Certified
• CuteCircuit Gold Standard for Sustainability, you can return this garment for recycling
• Lifetime warranty, in case of need it can be repaired
• Sustainable zero-waste design and manufacturing
• Unisex design for men and women
• Compatible with SoundShirt App (hugs and music!)

Hug Shirt FAQ

Do we want to replace human contact? The Hug Shirt is not meant to replace human contact, but to make you happy if you are away for business or other reasons and you miss your friends and loved ones. It also has some very interesting applications in the medical field with the elderly and children. And it is fun to use and very soft.

Interfaces and systems must be intuitive, natural, and compatible with our emotional state. Combining emotion and technology should be part of every design process. An increasing mobility of humans throughout the globe, due to business or study reasons, has brought family members to spend most of their time apart from each other.

How did we design the HugShirt? The digitally printed concentric circle areas on the HugShirt indicate the position of the sensors and actuators, we defined these areas during “body storming” sessions (a very physical way to go about brainstorming). We asked people to hug each other for a very long time and we mapped the position of their hands on the other person’s body. The areas that people touch the most are the exact location of the sensor areas.

HISTORY & QUICK FACTS

• Invented in 2002
• Awarded 1st Prize at Cyberart Bilbao Conference in 2004
• Awarded as one of the Best inventions of the Year by Time Magazine in 2006
• Awarded the UKTI Mobile World Congress Showcase in 2009
• Bluetooth 4.2, connects to your phone via the HugShirt App
• Rechargeable and washable
• Actuators within the fabric recreate touch over distance
• Touch Telecommunication on the move
• The fabrics used in the HugShirt are Oeko-Tex certified
• There are no wires inside the HugShirt
• Soft and stretchable digitally printed fabric highlights the actuation areas

HUGSHIRT VS SOUNDSHIRT

The SoundShirt is the direct descendant of the HugShirt. You will notice that the design has now been unified to make both our and your life easier. The only difference between the two products is the amount of actuators featured in the garment. The HugShirt features 12 actuators while the SoundShirt features 30. The HugShirt is intended to be used by everyone everyday while the SoundShirt is a more specialised garment used for music and gaming and provides a deeper range of immersion thanks to its stronger actuators. Both products work with our HugShirt mobile App and with the Q Pro laptop software, Q Pro is the professional music software used by orchestras and musicians for track recording and live performances.

The Science behind touch

Humans need physical contact with each other and digital technology should allow for a pleasant Human-Human Interaction.

Adults, such as busy travellers and elderly people living far away from their families, deprived of tactile contact for a long period of time will tell you just how depressing it feels. A hug, a handshake, a pat on the back, and a kiss are all very important and bring us close to others.

People need to be touched at least 70 times a day! Start noticing how many times you shake hands or hug a friend, and you will see that it really makes you feel good, and if you didn’t get enough hugs give us a call and come visit!