Product ID Help Please!! Couples Kiss Product??

hi,
i read an article awhile ago about a product that was designed for couples,
both partners took one part of the product with them,
and wherever they were in the world they could send kisses and hugs to each other just by squeezing their part of the product,
i think it used SMS technology, and vibrated and glowed,
any ideas what the product is???
any help much appreciated!!
micheal*

Is this it?


Jackie Lee and Hyemin Chung of MIT Media Lab have a great project called Lover’s Cups, a wireless-enabled pair of drinking glasses. Each cup can tell when someone is drinking from the other; when both are being used they glow to “celebrate this virtual kiss”.

http://web.media.mit.edu/~jackylee/cups.htm

Unfortunately its not, but its along the same premise!
The product i am looking for is a small handheld device which you can put in your bag.
Thanks for the reply!

I remember another one… a USB device that paired two little rolling pin looking hand massagers, and communicated through the internet. When one person rolled the roller, little motors would activate the other roller in another part of town or the country, on the desk of your friend, and they would feel it moving under their hand… and vice versa

Kind of like virtually holding hands

Check ID magazines new and notable or competition entries from the past year. I remember exactly which one you’re talking about but can’t remember exactly where so it would most likely be from ID mag within the past 2 years. I believe they have stuff online. Good luck hunting.

ok…

It’s got to be this then. According to the site done by IDEO in '99

The Kiss Communicator is a a concept prototype that allows you to blow a kiss to your beloved when s/he’s at the other part of the world.
To let a partner know that you are thinking of her or him, you squeeze the Communicator gently. It responds with a slight glow to invite you to blow into it and create your “message” in the form of an animated light sequence as the device responds to your breath. The “message” shows while you blow and if you are happy with it, you simply relax your grip and it is sent to the corresponding Communicator. Sensors in the handheld device pick up your kiss, translate the impulse into a series of randomly lit LEDs, which are then transmitted as a slow glow to your partner’s device. On the other end, the Kiss Communicator indicates that there is a message but waits until its owner squeezes it to play back the light sequence.

http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/007274.php

Bingo!! I believe thats the product i was thinking about.
Thanks!
:wink:

As this product is not commercially available ^^
does anyone know of any in a similar vein that are?
Im interested in getting one for my gf and i.

mod a mobile phone with extra flashy LED’s

every design school graduating class seems to generate one of these lovers ‘electronic amulet’ devices. Or same concept but for parent-child separation anxiety.

Nice to think about, but so slim on content. Telephone, email and eventually whatever video-phone technology becomes successful and affordable, trumps any of these disparate electronic amulets.

im interested to see this thread (even though it is a little bit old).

i actually did a similar product for my ID theisis in 2001. i have seen recently more of these kinds of things.

while most are conceptual junk, i do still think there is a potential market for something that address emotional communication, especially touch. think about it- we now use visual (camera phones, flickr), audio (cell phones), text (email, forums), etc. but especially between people in a relationship, touch is by far the most important. what would you rather get- a email from your girlfriend/boyfriend, or a hug? which could have more information content in it- a picture message, or a squeeze of your partner’s hand to let you know how they are doing?

my project was basically a bag that held a device that containeda haptic (touch) interface that would allow a variety of communication possibilities. it encouraged an intereactive communication (the input on one would change the feedback of input in the other one) but also work passively (so you could have one-way communication if one person was busy).

through testing, i did actually find a lot of interesting results, including the ability for pairs of partners to be able to make up a language of sorts through different physical methods (spinning something, pushing and pulling something, etc.).

if you need any research on this, im sure i could dig up lots from my project 5 years ago…

here’s the use-cycle from the project. i’ve also just posted more info, and you can download the final project report from my blog, http://rkuchinsky.blogspot.com

cheers,

R

Not sure whether you guys caught glimpse of these…but they were up on core77 blog as well as BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/tayside_and_central/6653777.stm

I am not sure how I feel about the looks of these products but as you said rkuchinsky there is a good potential out there for these products.

this one:

Had this description as

Stay in touch with a loved one by sending a ripple that conveys an emotion. By rotating your Eo Una your can send a message to your partners Eo Una, they can then mirror this action to return a ripple.

…isn’t that the same as a poke on facebook?

I suppose you could look at it that way…but the point is to communicate through a physical stimulus vs a virtual poke!

sure I know, but its was a similar analogy none the less. its about time web interactive got a bit more hands on…couldn’t they stick a usb cable on the end of it?

By using cellphone technology it allows them to be almost anywhere to communicate…sometimes internet is not available…

I just think this can be a good alternative for long distance relationships…but I don’t necessarily consider these products really finished…they still look a bit conceptual to me.