This is a conceptual project I saw at the museum today developed by IDEO back in 99. I remember seeing David Kelly present it back then and a few weeks ago I was thinking of how the SK takes the idea of the Kiss Communicator so much further!! And in such a short amount of time!

Anyways here is the description on the museum wall of a project that has now been relegated to a glass box instead of the hands of adoring customers (a product designer's worse nightmare)

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The idea for the Kiss Communicator was born when the designers noticed that pagers were often sold in pairs and used by couples to send romantic messages to one another during the day. Like pagers, cell phones or handheld organizers, the Communicator collapses the physical space between bodies, but it is not designed to transmit text, voices or images. Instead it communicates something more fundamental: a form of touch.

One person blows a kiss into the "lips" on the front surface of the device and the gesture is translated into a pattern of colored lights. The reciprocal unit, whether across the room or across the globe, will start to glow, will start to glow, and if one's partner answers by squeezing the sides of the device, the pattern of lights is displayed back to the sender.

--may--