New Robot Pillow Utilizes Respiratory Entrainment

Japanese boutique robotics firm, Yukai Engineering, has come to the 2023 CES event with a one of a kind new invention. Yukai Engineering has brought a robot pillow.

Yukai Engineering is also the team that brought the weird and wonderful cat pillow. This year it has brought an equally weird and beautiful breathing pillow. The hardware startup says the robot pillow utilizes ‘respiratory entrainment’,  which refers to a phenomenon where in the rhythm of a patient’s breathing matches that of a respirator.

This basically means the person’s breathing matches up with the robot cushion, rather than the other way around.

Yukai says the product was developed based on research from the University of Tokyo. Certainly plenty has been written about the power of breathing in improving one’s mental state and reducing anxiety. It’s precisely the reason breathing is tied so closely to meditation, for example.

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

Per the Fulfuly website [translated from the Japanese], “It’s very easy to use. Switch it on and hug it. This is all you need.” Would that the rest of life could be so simple. Like past Yukai products, the pillow will be launched via a crowdfunding campaign. No word on pricing as of yet.

Also new for the show is Lightony, a robotic lamp designed to “doze off” with the user.