The Mixed Reality Lab (MXR) aims to push the boundaries of research into interactive new media technologies through the combination of technology, art, and creativity.
With the tremendous advancements in technology today, long distance relationships have never been easier to maintain. While video chats and WiFi-enabled messaging services take away some of the trials and tribulations of cross-country courtships, you can now skip the Skype kissy faces and lock lips with your long distance love through Kissenger.
Aptly named for its comical combination of a kiss and a virtual messenger, the gizmo allows you to “kiss” your loved one from afar. While the quirky invention may seem straight from the future, it’s actually very simple: composed of plastic, motors, and a large, silicone pad (nothing says romance like a large, silicone pad!), each apparatus attaches to a smartphone.
The “kiss” is stimulated by a motorized mechanism beneath the silicone that applies a unique patter of pressure to the lucky recipient’s lips or cheek. While it’s geared toward wistful romantic partners, the peculiar product also promises to bring families closer together and even unite fans with their celebrity idols.
While the device claims to be “the world’s first mobile kiss messenger,” it’s not the only one on the market.
There’s another Kissenger that also uses motors and silicone to simulate a smooch.
There’s another Kissenger that also uses motors and silicone to simulate a smooch.
And Rouge-Rouge Kiss Me is another app that lets you send a colorful kiss to your loved ones.
Sending kisses long distance has become easier. In the past, people used written letters (maybe a woman left her lipstick imprint on an envelope sealed with a kiss). Then there were the sounds of kisses on the telephone, xoxo on emails, air-blown kisses on the internet, Skype and more. Now researchers have further developed new ways for people to communicate their affection and intimate feelings long distance in the digital age.
Developers at Lovbotics created the “Kissenger” system billed as “The World’s first mobile kiss messenger” which lets users press their lips into the soft lips of a cute little round device laden with sensors. When nested to a mobile phone with a special app, Kissenger transmits the pressure of their lips through a real-time data stream over the internet to a person far away who holds up their own little device to their face. A small module with the device even reproduces the sender’s scent (could be body odor or perfume) and the receiver—it is said— can even detect the sender’s chemical pheromones.
At the Goldsmiths University of London conference “Love and Sex With Robots” held December 19-20, 2016, one of Kissenger’s developers Emma Yann Zhang of the City University London demonstrated the kissing machine robot to audience members eager to try it for themselves. Said one kiss recipient, laughing, “I miss the wet feeling of a kiss.”
Zhang said she and other developers (at Japanese and Malaysian universities) aim to someday implant Kissenger in a robotic head made of silicone or in a humanoid robot like Anita, the character in the popular British/American television series Humans. She mused that Kissenger could also be useful for online dating if a woman wanted to detect if a man was a good kisser before she even met him (Zhang felt this factor was especially important to women).
The conference also yielded some other gadgets for communicating affection long distance. Teletongue, a project being developed at Keio University in Japan, lets users lick what looks like a human ear (made using 3D modeling) which has an embedded microphone and sensors. The sound of their licking—and the vibrations—are transmitted through a computer to a friend who holds a “lollipop” device. The developers, including Daisuke Yukita, say the device is a “natural way of enhancing and enjoying intimate relationships.”
These devices with their promise of virtual affection fit right in with the idea of sex robots (sex robots with artificial intelligence aren’t ready yet but are slated for production by California’s RealDoll, Abyss Creations sometime in 2017). Whether virtual kisses and digital licks are a good substitute for the real thing—-now that can be debated, but they certainly look like fun.
Holidays can be a rough time for those who are truly married to their jobs but also have a human that they love in their spare time. Enter the Kissenger, a new smartphone peripheral that allows anyone to send a smooch live via video chat.
Named after former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger* who rained bombs on millions of people from half a world away, the device is simple. It’s a little larger than a protective case and has an oval silicon “lip” at the bottom. High precision force sensors register a user’s lip movements and miniature linear actuators replicate those movements on the device of the person being kissed.
It’s easy to imagine that this could make lovers feel like kids again, always anticipating that moment of the kiss. An awkward conversation plays out about how the flight was, while their eyes drift towards that big, freshly sterilized silicone pad. Waiting, longing.
But, Kissenger is more than just a way to maintain intimacy. Emma Yann Zhang, the creator of the device, presented it at this week’s Love and Sex with Robots conference. She believes that humans will inevitably become more intimate with A.I. or robots and that the ability to share a kiss could be an important factor in that bond. She also makes it clear in a recent report that “this research will not attempt to conclude whether it is ethically acceptable to have intimate relationships with robots.”
As with any communication technology, the project is also about collecting data. Researchers will record statistics about blood pressure and heart rate in lab tests to see if users can be affected in the same way that they are by a real kiss. And eventually, Kissinger’s creators hope to pass the Turing test. Will lab subjects be able to tell the difference between a kiss from a person and a kiss from a computer simulation?
Kissinger is Zhang’s PhD project and she plans to continue with her research at the City University London lab of Adrian Cheok. We probably shouldn’t expect a product for consumers very soon.
*this project is not named after Henry Kissinger, its name is a combination of kiss and messenger.
A robot built to look like Scarlett Johansson. She was not involved in its creation. CREDIT: BOBBY YIP/REUTERS
Nothing says Christmas like a conference called “Love and Sex with Robots”. While many spent the week contemplating the birth of a baby two millennia ago, Goldsmiths University played host to the second international congress on congress with machines. One of the team said drily that it was great to see such a large number of journalists at a specialist academic gathering.
I can’t have been the only person to have shifted guiltily in my lecture theatre seat. There’s no doubt the topics under discussion were fascinating for anyone familiar with Blade Runner, Westworld, Humans and even Austin Powers, where human attraction to robots is a key theme. A study cited by one of the speakers reported that around 40 per cent of men would happily purchase a sex robot given half a chance.
At this point an American colleague looked up TrueCompanion.com (“The World’s First Sex Robot”) on her mobile and showed me a 10-grand example of their wares, who bore a startling resemblance to Melania Trump. Then Emma Yann Zhang, a computer science PhD student, took to the floor to demonstrate her “Kissinger” device, which transmits simulated lip-on-lip pressure to loved ones via a mobile phone app. You rather wonder what the not-entirely-peacenik Henry K makes of his smooching namesake.
