The Register®

Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/06/kissenger_not_kissinger/

Boffins uncloak G-rated teledildonic breakthrough

Remotely kiss a cow, kiss a bunny, kiss your loneliness goodbye

By Rik Myslewski in San Francisco

Posted in Science, 6th February 2012 21:36 GMT

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A team of robot reseachers have developed a prototype of internet-based remote kissing devices that – for reasons unexplained – comes in two versions, one a cartoonish bunny, the other a cow.

The bunny, well, The Reg can accept, seeing as how a juvenile oryctolagus cuniculus domesticus [1] might be some folks' idea of kissable cuteness. The cow, however, leaves us a wee bit befuddled.

To Hooman Aghaebrahimi Samani [2] of the National University of Singapore's Social Robotics Lab, working in collaboration with the Japan's Keio University, the cow is apparently quite suitable for the male half of his long-distance osculation simulator, dubbed Kissenger [3].

Do note that his device's name is a portmanteau of "kissing" and "messenger", and not a direct reference to Kissinger [4], Henry A. – although that worthy was reputed [5] to have been quite the ladies man, and was quoted to have noted that "Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac."

The Reg, by the way, has covered boffinary attempts to simulate lip-lock langor before, and we hasten to admit that Samani's attempt – the bunny half, at least – is a more palatable prototype than the straw-in-mouth "kiss-like remote mouth communication device for close relationships [6]" developed at Tokyo's University of Electro-Communications.

Kissenger's mode d'emploi is simplicity itself: one user simply kisses the device's oddly oversized lip-like receiver while the other user holds the same said soft slab next to his or her lips – or cheek, or, we assume, any other part of one's anatomy. Sensors transmit the deformation made by the sender's lips wirelessly through the interwebs, and the smootch is consummated.

As explained in a concept video [7] on Samani's website, one crying need for such long-distance loving is that "Our busy lifestyles often restrict us from kissing our loved ones."

But reaching out and kissing someone is not the only use for Samani's self-described "lip interaction system". He also envisions future human-to-robot kissing that "enables an intimate relationship with a robot," and human-to-virtual-character kissing, which could certainly enliven Second Life [8] interactions.

Perhaps most futuristically, Samani also foresees his technology enabling robot-to-robot canoodling, "allowing robots to take new identities in the future." ®