Developed by Kate Hartman and Hazel Meyer, Nudgeables is a fun and quirky project that allows you to poke or nudge a friend from a short distance.
Using X-bee radios, two wearables were developed, a garter and a brooch, that wirelessly communicate with one another.
Wireless Garter
The garter and brooch send and receives covert messages in the form of a vibration. To send a message, the wearer of the garter simply crosses her legs. When she receives a message, the tiny motor in the garter begins to vibrate creating a tapping sensation on the thigh. 😉
Wireless Brooch with Pinch Switch
The wearer of the brooch sends a message using the clever “pinch” switch located at the bottom of the brooch. Similarly, the received message is a vibrating or tapping sensation. These playful devices are inspired “by “signals” (scratch of the nose, a cough, “the look”) or backchannel exchanges (text messages sent across a room) that are used for discrete communication in broader social contexts. “