Skip to main content

Kissenger: Transmitting Kiss Through the Internet

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Human–Robot Intimate Relationships

Part of the book series: Human–Computer Interaction Series ((HCIS))

Abstract

Kissing is one of the most intimate forms of human interaction. In order to have love and sex with robots and virtual characters, it is essential to develop technologies and interfaces to facilitate such intimacy. Kissenger extends our sense of touch by creating a physical communication channel for humans to experience haptic kissing sensations through the Internet. It also provides an interface that can be integrated with robots and virtual agents to allow them to interact with humans in an intimate way. Kissenger uses an array of linear actuators to generate haptic stimulations on the human lips and force sensors to measure the force output. We developed a prototype that can be plugged into a mobile phone, so that users can send kisses to their loved ones while talking to them on their phones. In order to investigate the role of robotic kissing in digital communication, we conducted a haptic version of the Imitation Game proposed by Alan Turing. Results show that robotic kissing has no effect on the winning rates of the male and female players during human-human communication, but it increases the winning rate of the female player when a chatbot is involved in the game.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    VirtualKiss.com: e-Kissing Booth: http://www.virtualkiss.com/ekiss/.

  2. 2.

    Many of the existing remote touch systems are described in Chapter 3.

References

  1. Buchenau M, Suri JF (2000) Experience prototyping. In: Proceedings of the 3rd conference on designing interactive systems: processes, practices, methods, and techniques, ACM, pp 424–433

    Google Scholar 

  2. Center PR (2013) Online dating & relationships. http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Online-Dating.aspx

  3. Center PR (2016) 15% of American adults have used online dating sites or mobile dating apps. http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/02/11/15-percent-of-American-adults-have-used-online-dating-sites-or-mobile-dating-apps

  4. Chang A, O’Modhrain S, Jacob R, Gunther E, Ishii H (2002) Comtouch: design of a vibrotactile communication device. In: Proceedings of the 4th conference on designing interactive systems: processes, practices, methods, and techniques, ACM, pp 312–320

    Google Scholar 

  5. De Waal FB (2000) Primates-a natural heritage of conflict resolution. Science 289(5479):586–590

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. DiSalvo C, Gemperle F, Forlizzi J, Montgomery E (2003) The Hug: an exploration of robotic form for intimate communication. In: Robot and human interactive communication, 2003. In: The 12th IEEE international workshop on proceedings. ROMAN 2003, IEEE, pp 403–408

    Google Scholar 

  7. Floyd K, Boren JP, Hannawa AF, Hesse C, McEwan B, Veksler AE (2009) Kissing in marital and cohabiting relationships: effects on blood lipids, stress, and relationship satisfaction. West J Commun 73(2):113–133

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Harlow HF (1958) The nature of love. Am Psychol 13(12):673

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Hemmert F, Gollner U, Löwe M, Wohlauf A, Joost G (2011) Intimate mobiles: grasping, kissing and whispering as a means of telecommunication in mobile phones. In: Proceedings of the 13th international conference on human computer interaction with mobile devices and services, ACM, pp 21–24

    Google Scholar 

  10. Hendrie CA, Brewer G (2010) Kissing as an evolutionary adaptation to protect against human cytomegalovirus-like teratogenesis. Med Hypotheses 74(2):222–224

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Hughes SM, Harrison MA, Gallup GG (2007) Sex differences in romantic kissing among college students: an evolutionary perspective. Evolut Psychol 5(3):147470490700500,310

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Jankowiak WR, Volsche SL, Garcia JR (2015) Is the romantic-sexual kiss a near human universal? Am Anthropol 117(3):535–539

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Light KC, Smith TE, Johns JM, Brownley KA, Hofheimer JA, Amico JA (2000) Oxytocin responsivity in mothers of infants: a preliminary study of relationships with blood pressure during laboratory stress and normal ambulatory activity. Health Psychol 19(6):560

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Light KC, Grewen KM, Amico JA (2005) More frequent partner hugs and higher oxytocin levels are linked to lower blood pressure and heart rate in premenopausal women. Biol Psychol 69(1):5–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. McLuhan M (1994) Understanding media: the extensions of man. MIT, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  16. McLuhan M (2001) The medium is the message. Understanding media: the extensions of man, pp 23–35

    Google Scholar 

  17. Morris D (2005) The lips. The naked woman. Thomas Dunne Books

    Google Scholar 

  18. Park YW, Bae SH, Nam TJ (2012) How do couples use cheektouch over phone calls? In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM, pp 763–766

    Google Scholar 

  19. Perez MN, Mata FJA, Rodriguez VMZ, Zhang S (2015) Pervasive healthcare monitoring system. In: 2015 IEEE 12th international conference on ubiquitous intelligence and computing and 2015 IEEE 12th international conference on autonomic and trusted computing and 2015 IEEE 15th international conference on scalable computing and communications and its associated workshops (UIC-ATC-ScalCom), IEEE, pp 1712–1716

    Google Scholar 

  20. Shin H, Lee J, Park J, Kim Y, Oh H, Lee T (2007) A tactile emotional interface for instant messenger chat. Human interface and the management of information interacting in information environments. Springer, Berlin, pp 166–175

    Google Scholar 

  21. Singh D, Bronstad PM (2001) Female body odour is a potential cue to ovulation. Proc R Soc Lond B: Biol Sci 268(1469):797–801

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Takahashi N, Kuniyasu Y, Sato M, Fukushima S, Furukawa M, Hashimoto Y, Kajimoto H (2011) A remote haptic communication device that evokes a feeling of kiss. Interaction 2

    Google Scholar 

  23. Tian J (2010) A comparative study of chinese and American cultural context and the influence on communication. J Lang Teach Res 1(4):524–526

    Google Scholar 

  24. Turing AM (1950) Computing machinery and intelligence. Mind 59(236):433–460

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  25. Wang R, Quek F (2010) Touch & talk: contextualizing remote touch for affective interaction. In: Proceedings of the fourth international conference on tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction, ACM, pp 13–20

    Google Scholar 

  26. Wedekind C, Seebeck T, Bettens F, Paepke AJ (1995) MHC-dependent mate preferences in humans. Proc R Soc Lond B: Biol Sci 260(1359):245–249

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Wlodarski R, Dunbar RI (2013) Examining the possible functions of kissing in romantic relationships. Arch Sex Behav 42(8):1415–1423

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Emma Yann Zhang .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Cheok, A.D., Zhang, E.Y. (2019). Kissenger: Transmitting Kiss Through the Internet. In: Human–Robot Intimate Relationships. Human–Computer Interaction Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94730-3_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94730-3_4

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-94729-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-94730-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics