LOS ANGELES – When your love is hours, miles or oceans away, what can close the distance and make you feel like you're right next to each other? How about a pillow that makes you feel a heartbeat away, a lamp you can touch that will light up wherever your long-distance love is or even a T-shirt that will send your hugs. Yes, these are actual products.

As with everything it touches, technology has redefined the modern relationship, specifically the long-distance relationship, allowing love birds to always stay connected across the miles.

“It is a fundamental human need to need to feel loved,” said relationship and technology expert Michelle Drouin. “This is just one more medium by which people can convey the love and affection they have for other people in a way that humans really value.”

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If you've been in a long-distance romance, you're likely among the 1 in 4 internet users who's used tech to maintain the relationship. And even though nothing can really replicate the true feeling of being with someone you love, tech keeps on trying.

Drouin notes it is important for partners to communicate their boundaries when it comes to technology and to find the product that best fits their needs.

Here's a look at some of the options either on the market or in the works – the PG version. (This is a family publication, after all.)

Apps about you We'll start simply with the apps before we get into, well, the more out there innovations.

There are a number of apps available to smartphone users that help long-distance couples stay updated on each other’s lives since they can't be there in person. Apps such as Between or Without provide a space for couples to send pictures and messages to each other, keep each other in the loop with dual-calendars and even provide weather information about the city their significant other is located. These apps are customizable to each couple, so it feels like a space just for the two of them.

In long-distance relationships, sometimes what you miss the most are the simple things, like watching a movie together. Rabb.it lets you watch movies, TV and YouTube videos together and message each other about it on their app — just about as close as it can get to watching TV in the same room when you’re hundreds of miles apart.

Wearables to feel connected