A Chinese start-up 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.
MUA named after the sound people make when blowing a kiss, 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. Lockdown isolation inspired the invention. At their most severe, China s lockdowns 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.
He was a student at the Beijing Film Academy and focused his graduate project on the lack of physical intimacy in video calls. He later set up Siweifushe, which released MUA, its first product, on 22 January. The firm sold over 3,000 kissing machines and received about 20,000 orders in the two weeks after its release.
The MUA resembles a mobile stand with colourless pursed lips protruding from the front. To use it, lovers need to download an app on their phones and pair their kissing machines. When they kiss the device, it kisses back.
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. Its lack of tongue was one of the top complaints.
There were mixed online reviews. One person described it as feeling like a warm pacifier Very uncomfortable, it doesn't feel like a real kiss, they said on the Chinese online shopping platform, Taobao.
Others said it had helped their long-distance relationships. In the past I can see her but I can't touch her, but now there is a product that helps us realise the kiss. One reviewer said that it was a fun product even if you are single. 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 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. In 2011, researchers at Tokyo's University of Electro-Communications invented a kiss transmission machine, and in 2016 Malaysia s Imagineering Institute made a similar gadget called the Kissinger.