fufuly

fufuly is a cushion-shaped robot that does one thing: it breathes. An internal mechanism slowly expands and contracts the body, and the user simply holds it. The premise, borrowed from the way people and animals fall into a shared rhythm when close to one another, is that a person embracing something that breathes will unconsciously slow and deepen their own breathing. What separates fufuly from the rest of the relaxation-gadget shelf is that this claim was published before the product existed. The underlying work comes from the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, where researchers studying rhythmic synchronisation presented the effect at an international conference in 2018 and won an Emerging Technologies award; the full study, by Yuki Ban, Hiroyuki Karasawa, Rui Fukui and Shin'ichi Warisawa, appeared in Frontiers in Computer Science in 2022 and reported both calmer breathing and improved task performance among people holding a prototype. The product itself was developed by Yukai Engineering with the tobacco group JT and the advertising agency Hakuhodo. The object is deliberately unassuming: about 40 by 45 by 20 centimetres, roughly 2 kilograms, plain white, shaped so it can be held in several positions. The weight is part of the design, chosen to feel like holding a living creature rather than a pillow. Three modes are offered, labelled rest, work and sleep, each with a different breathing tempo; the manufacturer suggests ten minutes is enough. A lithium-ion polymer battery charges in about five hours and runs for about eight, and the cushion switches itself off after 180 minutes. The concept model was shown at CES 2023 and took a CES Innovation Award. A Kickstarter campaign ran from October to December 2023 and closed at 647 percent of its target, and general sale followed on 20 September 2024 at 29,800 yen, or USD 291 in the manufacturer's global store.

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