the internet- enabled pillow

2 Romance can be
complicated,
especially for couples
in long-distance
relationships. There
are many different technological ways
lovers can stay
connected, but
sometimes Skype or
Facetime just don't cut
it. Enter the internet-
enabled pillow. Joanna Montgomery,
25, of Newcastle, UK,
set out to develop a
new product that
would connect
couples who are physically apart. Pillow
Talk enables couples
to feel closer by
transmitting their
heartbeats - and by
lighting their pillows with a glow. While they may be
hundreds of
kilometres apart, the
two partners are
connected through a
wristband and a smartphone app. The
wristband picks up
the wearer’s
heartbeat and
transmits it via
Bluetooth to the iOS or Android app. The
other wearer
immediately receives,
and hears, the other's
heartbeat. "By plugging in your
headphones or the
pillow speaker, you
can lie in bed and hear
the real-time
heartbeat of your loved one,"
Montgomery says. The Internet-enabled
pillows also glow in
the dark. When one
person puts their
head down on their
pillow, it sends a signal over the internet to
light up the other
person's pillow. The result,
Montgomery adds, is
an intimate interaction
between two lovers.
'Sense of presence' Pillow Talk is currently
in beta testing and due
to be launched later
this year. But it's
already received
hundreds of orders. After being featured
on design and
technology blog
Gizmodo last year, the
project went viral.
Since then, it has received 750,000+
views on YouTube,
according to
Montgomery, who
founded the design
company Little Riot after creating Pillow
Talk. "I'm still amazed at the
success of it,"
Montgomery says. "I
seem to have
somehow struck an
emotional chord with people. When people
email me they don't
just say, 'Can I order
one?' They email me
about their boyfriend
or girlfriend and how they met... they send
pictures of
themselves." Her inspiration derived
from her digital
interaction design
degree at Dundee
University in Scotland
and personal experience with her
own boyfriend, who
works away every
four weeks on a ship
in the North Sea. "If you text or email
someone you have to
sit at your computer
or with your phone
and it doesn't seem
natural. When you’re in a relationship with
someone you're
sitting with them in
the same room - not
necessarily talking -
but still with them. There wasn’t any
technology out there
that offered that
experience." Pillow Talk offers a
sense of presence,
she says. "You don’t
have to actively
engage with it but you
still have a sense that your partner is there