Hugging This “Breathing” Pillow Can Help Calm You Down

There’s a new kind of robotic companion out there, and it’s supposed to help you calm down. Japanese company Yukai Engineering, in collaboration with the University of Tokyo, has created a robotic pillow that can help ease your anxiety through hugging and breathing.

The device is called Fufuly, and it was recently named an Innovations Award Honoree at this year’s CES 2023 show in Las Vegas. It features a technology that lets it take deep “breaths,” which allows your own breathing to follow a rhythm conducive to rest and relaxation. 

According to its creators, the pillow is based on the phenomenon of entrainment, in which a person’s bodily functions adjust to become in sync with an external source, for instance, a person we’re hugging. By synchronizing our breathing with that external source, we start to feel less stressed.

To use Fufuly, simply switch it on, embrace it, and allow the entrainment to take place. The pillow has been created to resemble and feel like a cloud, thanks to its soft velour, making it ideal for squeezing and hugging. It has three modes: regular, deep, and one that’s based on common relaxation breathing techniques.

This isn’t the first robot pillow on the market; Somnox was released in 2019 and used technology to monitor your sleep patterns and adjust to your own breathing pattern while asleep.

Yukai Engineering hopes to launch Fufuly sometime this year in Japan via crowdfunding, though they haven’t determined a price for it yet.