Chinese start-up creates lock-in-inspired kissing machine

A Chinese firm invented a lock-in-inspired kissing machine for remote lovers Jing Zhiyuan uses a Long Lost Touch remote kissing device as he shows how to use it during an interview with Reuters, at his home in Beijing.

SHANGHAI Reuters - A Chinese start-up inspired by lockdown isolation has invented a long-distance kissing machine that transmits users' kiss data collected through motion sensors hidden in silicon lips, which simultaneously move when replaying kisses received.

The MUA - named after the sound people usually make when blowing a kiss - also captures and replays sound and warms up slightly during kissing, making the experience more authentic, said Beijing-based Siweifushe.

Users can download kissing data from other users via an accompanying app.

The idea came from China's frequent, lengthy and widespread lockdown measures during the three-year COVID-19 epidemic, which saw authorities forbid residents from leaving their apartments for months on end.

I was in a relationship back then, but I couldn't meet my girlfriend due to lockdowns, said the inventor Zhao Jianbo.

As a student at the Beijing Film Academy, he focused his graduate project on the lack of physical intimacy in video calls. He later set up Siweifushe which released MUA, its first product, priced around 260 yuan $38 In the two weeks after its release, the firm sold over 3,000 kissing machines and received about 20,000 orders, he said.

The MUA resembles a mobile stand with realistic pursed lips protruding from the front. To use it, lovers need to download an app onto their phones and pair their kissing machines, which they plug into the phone charging port. The device is available in several colours with the same unisex lips. It has received mixed reviews, with some saying it was interesting and others saying it made them feel uncomfortable. There was a lack of tongue among the top complaints.

Some commentators on Weibo's social media site expressed concern that the device could be used for online erotic content, which is strictly regulated in China.

Zhao said that his company is complies with regulations but there is little we can do as for how people use the device. MUA is not the first remote kissing device. Researchers at Tokyo's University of Electro-Communications invented a kiss transmission machine in 2011 and Malaysia's Imagineering Institute made a similar gadget called the Kissinger in 2016.