Huggable, the smart health connected plush for hospitalized children

Everyone knows that being hospitalized does not mean playful, especially when the person concerned is a child. That's why the MIT Media Lab (one of many MIT labs) developed this plush toy, shaped like a little bear and known as the Huggable.

Changing the routine of sick children

Here is the main objective of this bear, which thanks to a smartphone and multiple sensors, will communicate with the child in question. Because under his appearance of adorable comforter, hides in reality a real center of technology! To change the lives of these children, the researchers imagined a simple concept: an intelligent and interactive plush ! It is important for the sick to be able to speak and interact with the world around them, in order to prevent them from becoming withdrawn and cut off from all social relationships.

(Embed) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaRCCA2rRR0 (/ embed) 

A technology center?

Equipped with some 1,500 sensors, cameras located in his eyes, microphones placed in his ears, a speaker, a measurement unit as well as a WiFi sensor, Huggable is perfectly autonomous and totally suitable for a child. Explained like this, its design seems to have been simple, yet a major challenge was taken up by scientists. Which ? Well, all this technological equipment should not be apparent to the user (because the child should not be afraid to speak with the object), a bet more than successful then! A small robot was initially planned, but for more logic and comfort at the level of the child, the idea gradually moved towards this pretty little bear.

But what difference with this good old comforter?

Huggable wants to help sick children face their everyday lives, it can allow them to “com-stress” by communicating with them. VSeach question is captured and analyzed to then offer the best (at least the most suitable) responses or interactions. The plush being the favorite toy of children (and in view of the explosion in the number of objects smart health connected in hospitals), Huggable is likely to become the new "cuddly toy" by definition. Still in the middle of a Review, no information on its price or its date of marketing was communicated.

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