Got a loner on your Christmas list?  Don’t know what to buy your strange cousin Eddy?  What about an animated blob that reacts to touch, temperature and loves to snuggle?

Funkionide is the brainchild of German designer Stefan Ulrich, who we can only imagine has a laboratory somewhere piled high with interactive pillow creatures yearning to be hugged. Though still in the conceptual stages, this shape changing robot is designed based on electro active polymers, plastics that change shape when they are electrified.

Ulrich hopes that these snugglebots can one day completely replace the need for human companionship. “People already bury themselves in possessions and shield themselves from real life with technology. So if robots and objects can fulfill all their emotional needs as well, why do they need other humans?” said Ulrich.  Which leaves us wondering what childhood trauma made him

turn to the love of robots over his fellow humans.

Source: Programmica