Hugging this pulsating cushion apparently suppresses your anxiety

Yukai Engineering, the team behind the strangely adorable cat tail pillow, is back with a new quirky invention. Unveiled at CES 2023, the Fufuly is yet another anxiety-reducing cushion from the Japanese company, but this time featuring a gentle rhythmical pulsation as the main therapeutic tool. The idea is that when you’re hugging a Fufuly, its life-like behavior stimulates your belly to induce slower and deeper breathing. Despite its thought-bubble shape (supposedly to evoke the image of a puff of air), the cushion felt more like a mellow creature dozing off in my arms. I even mistook the quiet mechanical noise as a cat’s purr, to which CEO Shunsuke Aoki assured me this was purely a coincidence.

For this project, Yukai Engineering partnered with the University of Tokyo, which researched on the “phenomenon of rhythmical synchronization between individuals or between individuals and objects” as they interact with one another. Think how we usually feel calm when we’re holding a baby or pet in our arms — it’s all subconscious. “Using the cushion for just 5 minutes can reduce users’ stress levels and make them more alert,” according to Aoki.

The Fufuly comes with three operating modes: you have the self-explanatory “regular” and “deep” modes to suit your calming needs, with the third mode based on common relaxation breathing techniques. Sadly, we couldn’t change modes with the prototype on the show floor. Aoki added that his team already had the idea of a pulsating cushion around the same time as the Qoobo cat tail pillow, but in the end, they decided to develop the latter first.

Lightony
Richard Lai/Engadget

Another new device shown off by Yukai Engineering was Lightony, a cute humanoid bedside lamp which literally nods off after a while. Supposedly, the robot’s life-like head tilt and eye roll movements will encourage you to fall asleep faster, though it’s also possible that kids would just stay up as they play with this toy. Lightony also responds to voice commands (all processed locally instead of the cloud), so you can tell the robot to set a countdown when you’re in bed, or say “good morning” to wake it up. 

Aoki told Engadget that the Fufuly will be launching in Japan this year by way of crowdfunding, followed by a global launch eventually, though no price is announced just yet. As for the Lightony, it’s still in its early development stage, so we’ll have to circle back later for an update.

Shiftall launches a high end SteamVR headset and an affordable body tracker for VTubers

Shiftall is a Panasonic company dedicated to building equipment to plunge people deeper into their virtual worlds. That includes the Mutalk (pictured), a mouth-worn Bluetooth microphone designed to prevent your speech from being heard by people in the same room. Here at CES, however, the company has unveiled two new versions of its VR headset as well as some gadgets designed to improve your immersion in the virtual world.

First up, a new version of the MeganeX VR headset, a SteamVR-compatible unit with a 2,560 x 2,560 micro-OLED display. The company says that the screens, combined with Panasonic-branded pancake lenses, offer the “highest level of viewing experience.” In addition, the frame is lightweight, and offers six degrees of freedom, as well as enough comfort to ensure it can be worn without fatigue for hours at a time. But you’ll also need to cough up if you want to use one, since it’ll cost you $1,699 when it launches at some point between March and April.

In addition, the company is showing off two new accessories that’ll offer great benefits for the VTubers amongst you. The first is Haritora X Wireless, a full body tracking solution for SteamVR that enables you to have fully controllable torso and legs in a virtual space. The setup uses four bands, one around your chest, hips, knees and ankles, which give your digital avatar the ability to dance and high kick their way around. This is similar to Sony’s Mocopi motion-tracking setup which add bands to your wrists, ankles and back and head. 

Shiftall
Andrew Tarantola

The other new innovation is Flip VR, a hand controller for SteamVR which uses lighthouse tracking to monitor the position of your hands. But, unlike most normal hand controllers, these are held to the hand by a strap across the palm, rather than being gripped. The top plate, where you’ll find the joystick and action buttons, can be flipped out of the way to free your hand up for other things. In the demo, a user can stop playing, flip the joystick over to the other side of their hand and drink from a can without having to remove their VR gear, or put it down on the floor.

As for pricing, Haritoria X Wireless will set you back $350, although there’s no word yet on when it’ll be available either in Japan or Stateside. As for FlipVR, we’re waiting to hear back on how much it’ll cost, and when we can expect to be able to drink, while in character as a VTuber, without having to drop our controller and ruin the illusion.