New technology enables the distant hug

Have you ever wanted to send someone a hug long-distance, and not just scribble a worn phrase on a greeting card?

Check out the free presentation by international fashion designers Ryan Genz and Francesca Rosella at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 23, at Waubonsee Community College. It will be in Bodie Hall at the Sugar Grove campus at Route 47 and Waubonsee Drive.

According to their Web site, London-based CuteCircuit is a fashionable technology company that creates "design excellence and beauty in the fields of wearable technology and interaction design."

Genz and Rosella, graduates of the Interactive Design Institute Ivrea in Italy who founded CuteCircuit in 2004, are in the Chicago area because their work is currently being featured in "Fast Forward: Inventing the Future," an exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

One of their best known products is the Hug Shirt, which was nominated as one of the best inventions of the year in 2006 by Time Magazine.

The Hug Shirt is a Bluetooth accessory for Java enabled mobile phones. Sensors in the hug giver's shirt record things like strength and length of touch, skin warmth and heart rate. That data is transmitted from the sender's cell phone to the phone of the hug receiver. The receiving phone sends the data to actuators in the receiver's shirt, giving the wearer the sensation of being hugged.

"We thought it would be a really great presentation for our students and faculty, as well as members of the community," said Jeff Noblitt, director of marketing for Waubonsee Community College. "Our art faculty wanted to bring them in for their students, and they partnered with the student activity department."

For information, call the college at (630) 466-7900.