Bizarre Device Will Give You a Facebook ‘Poke’ In Real Life

The Facebook "poke" button has always been a bit of a mystery, since it doesn't do anything a simple email or text couldn't accomplish. In fact, its continued existence strikes us as somewhat of an inside joke among Facebook's designers.

Jasper van Loenen and Bartholomäus Traubeck are trying to change this. So they developed a machine that actually pokes you when your friends send you a "poke" on Facebook.

The Poking machine converts the message into an actual physical poke, extending the reach of this haptic gesture indefinitely. This way users can connect not only virtually but also physically," they explain.

Would you "poke" a buddy if you knew the cyber-gesture would manifest itself in a real jab to the arm? Why not? If nothing else it would be a fun way to annoy them while they're at work.

Of course, they'd have to put the clunky poking machine on their arm first, which would be a difficult step for folks who don't want to look like a weirdo to take.

So, unfortunately for the poking machine's inventors, it's not going to catch on until it gets a lot smaller. (A poke tattoo, maybe?) Which is too bad, because the duo put a lot of work into their creation, as you can see in the video below.