Email and instant messaging are pretty elliptical means of communication in terms of transmitting emotions and feelings to the person you're talking to and not even emoticons can take up the task of sending the actual feeling of being hugged, embraced or squeezed affectionately by the other person participating in the chat.

The researchers from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore have succeeded in transforming online hugs from just words or maybe an emoticon to a real-life hug. They constructed a prototype that allows "touch" to be transmitted in cyberspace through a vibrating jacket.

According to the researchers at the Nanyang Technological University, their wireless jacket, designed for now only for chickens and other small pets, can be controlled with a computer and gives the animal the feeling of being touched by its owner. The small size is justified by the fact this is still a prototype, but as the research progresses this device will fit small children and even adults, and by that time the sensitivity and the possibility of recreating the actual touch will be much improved

A pet, wearing the wireless, sensor-rigged jacket, is captured on camera moving inside its coop. This image is transmitted online to the owner in a remote location, who gets to see a model of the animal moving. When the owner touches the model, the signals are transmitted and reproduced as a series of vibrations on the chicken's jacket.