Sehnsucht is a thing of the past. In the cyber age, lovers separated by oceans don’t just text or video chat anymore. They kiss.
Meet Kissenger. The device is about to hit the market. It looks like an oversized 3-D Tamagotchi with a thick silicone lip. The egg-shaped gadget uses sensors to detect pressure and vibration. It reads the physical movement of lips. Then it sends that data over the internet in real time. The recipient feels it instantly.
Love Meets Robotics In Sri Lanka
You might expect this kind of tech to come from Japan. You’d be wrong. This invention originated in Sri Lanka. The company behind it is Lovotics. The name combines love and robotics.
Lovotics builds digital psycholabs. Their goal is to create robots that can provoke and return emotions. One prototype aims to communicate eight moods. Sadness. Happiness. Anger. It uses artificial emotion hormones to signal these states.
But that robot is still in development. Kissenger is different. It is simpler. It is going into series production soon.
Dr. Hooman Samani created it. He is a lecturer in electrical engineering at the University of Taipei in Taiwan. He spent three years researching kiss technology. His mission was to save long-distance relationships.
“We have so many communication options,” Samani told ARD. Skype. Chat. Email. “But something is missing. We need to bring physicality back into communication.”
Tele-Kissing 2.0
Early testers had feedback. One young user said the device should look more like his girlfriend. The optical design needs work. So does the user experience.
Saving the session could help. If Kissenger could pause, partners in different time zones could fit the tele-kiss into their day better. Right now, it’s all or nothing.
“We need to bring physicality back into communication.” – Dr. Hooman Samani
The interview and a user test are available on YouTube. Watch them to see if the vibe is worth the awkwardness.
Human-To-Human (H2H) Bussing
The Kissenger isn’t just for couples. It’s a Human-to-Human (H2H) smacker. But the egg-headed robot has other uses.
Samani wants to use it for avatars. You could get closer to digital personas on a new communication level. He also wants to teach robots how to kiss.
Why? For dry training. Or to build “a more intimate relationship with robots in our environment,” as Samani suggests. It’s not just human-to-robot. It’s robot-to-robot too. Justice for machines.
The application is up to you. Use it for romance. Or use it to practice for the end of the world when we’re all dating androids. The tech works. The social implications? Less clear.
