A Chinese start-up inspired by lockdown isolation has created Mua, a long-distance kissing machine that transmits users’ kiss data gathered through motion sensors hidden in silicon lips, which move simultaneously when replaying received kisses.
According to Beijing-based Siweifushe, the MUA – named after the sound people frequently make when blowing a kiss – also captures and replays sound and warms up slightly during kissing, making the experience more authentic.
Users can even download kissing data provided by other users via an accompanying app. The concept arose from China’s frequent, lengthy, and widespread lockdown measures during the three-year COVID-19 pandemic, which saw authorities prohibit residents from leaving their apartments for months on end.
“I was in a relationship back then, but I couldn’t meet my girlfriend due to lockdowns,” inventor Zhao Jianbo explained.
He was a graduate student at the Beijing Film Academy at the time, and his graduate project concentrated on the lack of physical intimacy in video calls. He subsequently founded Siweifushe, which launched MUA, its first product, on January 22 for around $38 US Dollars.
He claims that in the two weeks following its release, the company sold over 3,000 kissing machines and got over 20,000 orders.
The MUA is designed to look like a mobile stand, with lifelike pursed lips protruding from the front. To use it, lovers must first download an app onto their cellphones and pair their kissing machines, which must be plugged into the phone’s charging port. They use the app to start the device, and when they kiss it, it kisses them back.
The gadget comes in a variety of colors, but all have the same unisex lips. It has gotten mixed reviews, with some users finding it intriguing while others finding it unsettling. One of the most common concerns was that it lacked a tongue.
Some commentators were also concerned that the Mua device could be used for online erotic content, which is rigorously prohibited in China.
Zhao stated that his business, Mua abides by regulations, but that “there is little we can do about how people use the device.”
MUA is not the first remote kissing gadget on the market. In 2011, researchers at Tokyo’s University of Electro-Communications created a “kiss transmission machine,” and in 2016, Malaysia’s Imagineering Institute created a similar device dubbed the “Kissinger.”