The Tesla Suit is designed to work with virtual reality for an immersive, tactile experience. Credit:Facebook: Tesla Studios In a blog post, Tesla Studios claimed its "Tesla Suit", or "T-Suit", had simulated the world's first "virtual hug". This GIF below shows BBC preventer Sara Cox trying out the suit as part of a forthcoming documentary on modern technology and social media. Wearing an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, Cox viewed her friend across the room through cameras pointed directly at him. He was fitted out with Microsoft's Kinect motion sensing technology, and both were connected to an Xbox 360.

BBC presenter Sara Cox wearing the Tesla Suit. Credit:YouTube When he moved his arms in a hugging motion, the Kinect technology transmitted it wirelessly to the Tesla Suit, which then translated it for Cox into a direct tactile sensation. Cox described the experience in a YouTube video as "really cool to be able to ... be hugged whilst not being hugged". "I have my friend here who wasn't hugging me but he made the movement of hugging me and I could feel it all down my back and on my shoulders and on my stomach," she said. "It feels like the beginning of a really exciting journey with these guys [at Tesla Studios] who are incredibly talented and passionate."

Tesla Studios told Fairfax Media that it was unable to provide any more detailed footage of the suit in action, but that Cox's documentary would be available in February 2016. The T-Suit is "currently in development", with a Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign on the cards "within the next few months", according to its blog. Tesla cites the potential applications for the T-Suit as gaming, remote tactile communication, sport and medicine, and "other virtual reality uses". Ben Barnes of technology and sexuality website Future Of Sex argues intimate communications over long distances will be made more meaningful with this type of technology. "A pair of the haptic body suits working in tandem could be used to simulate all sorts of spooning, stroking, and canoodling between two people at a distance," he wrote.

Combine it with "teledildonic" devices which deliver sexual stimulation over long distances, and you're potentially talking a very healthy long-distance relationship indeed. Barnes also suggested the technology could be applied to remote sex work, creating a safer environment for both worker and client. Monash University IT research fellow Jon McCormack said porn would play a role in the development of this type of technology, but that the games industry would be the top driver. However he was sceptical a project like the Tesla Suit would get off the ground in the near term, "particularly if they've only got one prototype working". There were technological hurdles to recreating temperature sensations; for instance, cold sensations could only be created by making the other side of a surface hot, requiring heat dissipation technology, he said.

And while the Tesla Suit might convey touch in a simple form, McCormack said it would be a while before haptic technology caught up with visual virtual reality in terms of its likeness to real life. The Tesla Suit uses electrical stimulation rather than traditional haptic technology which uses force or vibration. (If you've ever used an Apple Watch, that tap on your wrist when you receive a message is haptic technology.) "It might be interpreted hapticly if done correctly," McCormack said, but "most of my experience with this [electrical stimulation] is not what you'd traditionally think of as haptics". "I think in the short term it's just technically way too difficult to do in a compelling way ... that full-on highly immersive experience is still long, long way away," McCormack said. Tesla Studios was contacted for further details on its prototype suit.