Kissinger
Yep, there is a pair of gadgets that lets you “tele-kiss” your long-distance loved ones.
Each Kissinger robot has highly sensitive pressure sensors beneath a pair of silicone lips. Whenever someone gives it a smooch, it mimics the pressure, position, shape, and movement of the user’s lips on their partner’s device in real-time. The developer, Lovotics, is also working on a version that plugs into your phone to let folks give each other a peck while video or voice chatting.
The concept’s a bit unsettling and undeniably dystopian, but I can see how there might be a market for it that’s not totally disturbing. Except it gets even weirder. Lovotics also advertises that the Kissinger can also simulate “human to robot” kisses and “human to virtual character” kisses, so that “humans can kiss virtual characters while playing games and receive physical kisses from their favorite virtual characters.”
Ok, never mind. Burn it. Burn it all down. Humanity was a mistake.
