Long-Distance Kissing Machine?

[Davey Gaga]

You crazy Japs.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/05/05/computer.kiss.device/index.html

Bit on the worrying side, no? Big leap for technology's integration with every-day use...big step backwards for, you know, not being a bit of a geek and stuff.

Would real couples, separated by business trips use it? I wouldn't imagine so. Would internet geeks who're sad and lonely and will never see the significant other use it? Probably...and probably damage their social skills in the process.

Although I do like the idea at the end of kissing Justin Bieber (not personally, it's just a funny concept).

Thoughts?

 

[Sepalcure]

I don't know about anyone else, but I'd rather wait for a few weeks or days of not having to kiss Shawn then purchase a machine like this. Anything that supposedly supplants the physical, tactile sensations of kissing or touching another person just plain weird me out. I understand where the idea of this concept came from but even when I was in actual long distance relationships where thousands of miles separated me from my significant other, I don't think a thought like, "Hmm I wonder if there would be a way to kiss such-and-such-a-person without actually pressing my lips to theirs could exist. Hmmm, ooh, ahh." No, I thought, "How the fuck can I get a chance to save some of my allowance (waay back in the day) to see them for at least one day in person."

Eventually I think you're going to physically want to kiss and hold the person. Once you've experienced that, you don't crave it as much; there's nothing like the brush of a hand or the kiss of a loved one. Seriously, if you need a machine like this to quell your sexual urges because you "get none" then you need to go out more, in my opinion. No offense. >_>

 

[Linnaete]

A waggling straw connected to a machine that the pair of you will need to have each that looks like a police breathalyser. So not quite kissing at all then.

I really do love hearing about Japan's innovatory tendencies. Useful, powerful and almost revolutionary technological inventions aside, their more obscure and pointless works of electronic art really do amuse me, which is probably why I love them so much. Unfortunately for the team behind this, I'm not too sure why you would purchase this, because it just sounds bizarre and pointless in concept. This is namely as you're just doing it to a machine which is never going to be a suitable emulator of actually kissing the real thing in person. And if I am to "save" the kiss and repeat it later, I wouldn't be primarily absorbed into thoughts of actually kissing my significant other, just the main thought that I am artificially "kissing" what is essentially a machine.

Still, I suppose some people will want to make this a popular thing. Imagine if this is Twitter or something and you are able to "kiss" a certain celebrity you're obsessed with by downloading a saved "kiss" from them? Yeah, that isn't kissing at all. Next item please!