What is it about?
Mello is a multi-sensory interactive plush toy designed to support emotional well-being and alleviate stress through a combination of tactile, haptic, auditory, and visual stimuli. Mello integrates a pressure-sensitive interface, vibrotactile feedback, ambient soundscapes, and a pulsing LED light to offer a calming user experience. An accompanying mobile application allows for real-time control and customization of sounds, tracking of usage behaviour, and personal adjustment of features. A user-centered design process involving iterative prototyping and user feedback shaped Mello's development. Evaluation through user testing (n=15) showed high satisfaction (4.2/5), with participants reporting feelings of joy, calm, or groundedness. Mello demonstrates the potential of tangible interfaces in emotional regulation and everyday stress relief; and opens avenues for future work in multi-sensory & multi-modal affective interaction design.
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Why is it important?
Mello demonstrates the potential of tangible interfaces in emotional regulation and everyday stress relief; and opens avenues for future work in multi-sensory & multi-modal affective interaction design.
Perspectives
Stress relief companions needs to be explored more and here we are tried to create a multi sensory and multi modal affective plush toy that shows potential for anxiety relief and reduction in stress or helps with daily life burnouts etc. This calm technology could prove to be very helpful for busy lives and for people who need emotional support.
Suryakant Sahoo
Aalto-yliopisto
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Mello : A Calm Companion for Stress Relief - A Multi-sensory and Interactive Plush Toy, October 2025, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery),
DOI: 10.1145/3714394.3754426.
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