Breathe with the robotic pad • businessroundups.org

From the team that brought you the weird and wonderful robot cat pillow comes an equally weird and wonderful breathable pillow. Japanese boutique robot company Yukai Engineering returns to CES with Fufuly, which follows in Qoobo’s footsteps by literally breathing some life into a pillow.

The hardware startup says the product uses “respiratory entrainment,” which refers to a phenomenon where the rhythm of a patient’s breathing matches that of a ventilator. Here, that basically means that the person’s breathing matches the robotic pad, rather than the other way around.

Yukai says the product was developed based on research from the University of Tokyo. Much has certainly been written about the power of breathing to improve one’s mental state and reduce anxiety. It is precisely why breathing, for example, is so closely associated with meditation.

There’s no app, and really, not much in the way of smarts here (and unlike Qoobo, it doesn’t respond directly to user stimuli). Instead, you cycle through three modes: normal, deep, and third, designed to help the user relax.

According to the Fully website [translated from the Japanese], “It is very easy to use. Turn it on and hug it. This is all you need.” If only the rest of life could be that simple. Like previous Yukai products, the pillow will be launched through a crowdfunding campaign. No word yet on pricing, though CEO Shunsuke Aoki tells me the product will likely cost more than Qoobo, which currently costs just over $100.

Also new to the show is Lightony, a robotic lamp designed to fall asleep with the user.