Success story: JoyHaptics

We want to introduce our beloved client JoyHaptics to you. We have helped them to develop a smart teddy bear that touches you over a distance. Sounds exciting, right?

JoyHaptics is one leading key innovator in social haptic solutions. The company was founded in 2015 by award-winning engineer and scientist Jussi Tuovinen and Kai Martesuo. Their idea is to create a solution to one of the world's big problems: the lack of touch and intimacy by using modern technology and communication. The lack of touch became a bigger issue during the Covid era and people have started to notice how big of an impact it has on well-being.

The journey has not been easy but the vision has always been clear: the desire to connect people through social communication by creating an ecosystem for the most advanced replication of human touch over distance. There have been 50 different prototypes from bracelets to varying types of characters. Based on many interviews and thorough research, JoyHaptics created the iXu Bear.

iXu Bear

iXu Smart Touch Bear is a teddy bear that mirrors the touch of your loved one’s hand over distance. It works through a downloadable mobile application. The bear is powered by smart touch electronics and custom-made embedded software. iXu bear mirrors your movement with its moving arm so you can send a touch in real-time to your loved one.

The name of iXu comes from I X You. The product is suitable for families and long-distance couples who want to add more levels to their contact. Nowadays, we use many audio-visual methods, i.e., videos and telephone. Still the problem with those methods is a lack of physical touch which is essential for people.

Work with Montel Intergalactic

Montel has had the honor to be a part of the iXu bear's story. We started our journey together in 2020 when JoyHaptics needed a technology partner to create the actual product based on a prototype. The crucial thing Montel offered for JoyHaptics was broad knowledge of Bluetooth and mobile development to go with the iXu hardware as well as how to extend the development to the Cloud environment.

The mobile application for controlling the Bear uses a cross-platform application development framework called Flutter. Flutter enables the application to be developed for Android and iOS from a single code base. The application connects to the iXu smart bear over Bluetooth, enabling the user to send remote touch commands.

"We started looking for a technology partner with expertise in connecting hardware over Bluetooth to a mobile device. We were very interested in the IoT knowledge that Montel had to offer. In addition, Montel had a broad understanding of Flutter. Thanks to Flutter, we didn't have to make two different code bases, making version control easier and resulting in significant cost savings. " Jussi Tuovinen, CEO & Co-founder at JoyHaptics, points out.

To summarize the project, Montel played a pivotal role in developing the cross-platform app. The application uses custom Bluetooth plugins for iOS and Android, which offer more functionality and control over Bluetooth, which is an essential part of the application. In addition, the application enables the user to engage with the other user using in-app messaging, which is also delivered to the user when the app is in the background using push notifications.

"We have been delighted with Montel. They are flexible and skilled. Our needs have changed a lot over the years, but Montel has still offered flexible solutions to our needs. Everything that has been promised has been done. This partner gives you the necessary know-how and a professional perspective on how things should be executed. It has been crucial to us." Jussi Tuovinen says.

Edit: Unfortunately the story of JoyHaptics and iXu bear ended due to the lack of new financing opportunities.

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