By Elsie Udoh
Attention has been drawn to a kissing machine which was invented by Zhao Jianbo, a student of the Beijing Film Academy.
The kissing machine, MUA, which is shaped like a mobile stand with colourless pursed lips protruding from the front, is a device designed for long-distance lovers.
The device tries its best to imitate real-life kissing experiences by making sounds and warming up slightly when kissed. It also kisses back after the lovers link and pairs their machine to an app.
Jianbo birthed the idea of inventing the kissing machine following the high impact of the Covid19 in China where the lockdown rule was strictly enforced and physical intimacy was restricted making him unable to meet up with his girlfriend.
Based on this, Jianbo in his graduate project, thought out of the box to invent the kissing machine which filled up the physical intimacy gap that video calls lacked.
According to the Guardian, the project was a big hit as his firm, Siweifushe, sold over 3,000 kissing machines and received about 20,000 orders two weeks after its release on January 22, 2023.
However, this long-distance intimacy restriction-solving technique was not met well with some people as mixed reviews circulated the online space.
While it was described by some as feeling like “a warm pacifier”, others said it was very uncomfortable and didn’t feel like a real kiss.
Still, others expressed concern that the device could be used for online erotic content, which is strictly regulated in China.
Meanwhile, MUA is not the first remote kissing device. Researchers at Tokyo’s University of Electro-Communications invented a “kiss the transmission machine” in 2011, and Malaysia’s Imagineering Institute made a similar gadget called the “Kissinger” in 2016.
