異地戀神器:智能手機殼讓你和愛人“遠距離接吻”大綱

Long distance relationships are always tough, and the lack of physical interaction is one of the main reasons for that. There’s no substituting human touch, yet, but rapidly-advancing technology already provides some intriguing alternatives. One such example is the Kissenger, a smartphone peripheral that allows users to kiss over long distances.

異地戀很辛苦，主要原因之一大概是沒辦法有肉體接觸。肉體接觸這事應該沒什麼東西可以代替，雖然過去是這麼說，但高速發展的科技竟然連可以替代肉體接觸的東西都發明出來了。比如這款名爲 Kissenger的智能手機周邊產品就是一個典型的例子，你可以通過它與你的愛人進行遠距離接吻。

The concept of long-distance kissing has been an intriguing research concept for over half a decade now. Back in 2012, we wrote about the Kissenger, a solution created by Dr. Hooman Samani, Director of AIART Lab (Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Technology Laboratory) in Singapore. It consisted of two internet-connected bunny-shaped robots with big silicone lips that could send the touch of human lips between each-other to (sort of) simulate a kiss between two human beings.

五年多來，遠距離接吻一直是人們所關注的研究課題，早在2012年，新加坡人工智能和機器人技術實驗室（AIART）的科學家胡曼?薩瑪尼博士研發過一款名爲Kissenger的機器人。它由兩個通過互聯網連接的兔子形狀機器人組成，每個機器人上都有一個很大的硅膠嘴脣，它可以傳遞人類嘴脣的觸感從而模仿出兩個人的接吻。

The Kissinger made international news headlines when it was originally revealed, but it never translated into an actual consumer product. However, the idea of transmitting human kisses over long distances remained popular, and, last month, Emma Yann Zhang, a Computer Science PhD student at City University London, presented her own take on the idea, also called the Kissenger.

Kissenger當初被髮明出來時登上了世界各國媒體的頭條，但它卻始終沒被轉化爲能推向消費者的產品。不過，遠距離接吻這個理念卻一直很受歡迎，終於，在2016年12月的時候，倫敦城市大學的電腦科學博士生——艾瑪?雁?張嘗試着研發出了一款遠距離接吻產品，同樣取名爲Kissenger。

Derived from the words ‘kiss’ and ‘messenger’, the Kissenger works in a similar way as Dr. Samani’s Kissenger, but features a much more practical design. Instead of a cute robot connected to a computer, the Kissenger takes the shape of a smartphone cover, with a large, oval silicone “lip” at the bottom. All the user has to do is plant a wet one on this silicone pad and built-in high precision force sensors register a user’s lip movements, while miniature linear actuators replicate those movements on a second device used by the person being kissed.

Kissenger是Kiss和Messenger兩個詞的合成衍生詞，它的工作原理與薩瑪尼的機器人類似，但在設計上卻更具實用價值。張女士不再採用和電腦相連的兔子機器人，取而代之的是底部裝有一個橢圓形大硅膠“嘴脣”的智能手機殼。使用者只需要在硅膠“嘴脣”上來個深情一吻，其內置的高精傳感器就會記錄下這個動作，並通過微型線性致動器在接吻對象手中的Kissenger上覆制這個動作。

The Kissenger aims to replicate romantic kisses, but as Emma Yann Zhang says, the device can also be used by parents to give their children a kiss on the cheek when they are away at work. The PhD student presented her invention at the recent Love and Sex with Robots conference, where she said that humans will inevitably become more intimate with A.I. or robots, and being able to share a kiss will play a big part in that kind of relationship.

Kissenger本意是複製戀人間浪漫的吻，但張女士表示，這個裝置還可以讓父母們在外出工作時在孩子臉上親一下。張女士在不久前的“與機器人的愛和性”大會上展示了自己的發明，她表示通過分享吻，人類與機器人的關係必將變得更親密。

Zhang admits that her invention still requires a fair bit of work to create a lifelike kissing experience, but she is already working to improve it. She and her team are working on a way to build scent into the Kissenger, so that users can also get the authentic smell of the person they want to kiss. They also want to record data about blood pressure and heart rate to see if users are affected in the same way that they are by a real kiss.

張女士承認自己的發明還需要更多的調試以達到更逼真的接吻感受，但她已經在着手改進。目前，張女士與自己的團隊正在研究如何讓Kissenger傳輸氣味，這樣用戶就可以在接吻的時候聞到愛人真實的氣息。他們還打算記錄下用戶使用產品時的血壓和心跳，這樣就可以瞭解這個設備是否能像真實接吻那樣讓人們心動。

The Kissenger is still a long way from becoming a real consumer product, but the concept of long-distance kissing is definitely evolving.

雖然Kissenger要成爲真正的消費品還有很長的一段路要走，不過遠距離接吻的理念確實得到了進一步發展。