Friday, November 9, 2007

Project Summary

Technology does not have to only encompass ones and zeros, it can create an emotive context that engages and connects others. “Blowing Kisses” will do exactly that. We are taking a humanistic approach to sending a loved one a virtual kiss. Instead of sending a simple email or a text message, the user will have to actually exert physical energy to send a “kiss” to the receiver. And just like real kisses, the enjoyment of the act will depend on the level of effort set forth. Here is how it will work…

Two people will have “flowers.” The flowers will be a pinwheel-like structure, with tri-colored LEDs in the center. When one person wants to send the other a kiss, they will have to blow on the pinwheel (as hard or as light as they wish.) The intensity of the kiss will depend on how fast or slow the pinwheel moves. For instance, if the pinwheel only moves a little, the corresponding color will be a friendly yellow. If the pinwheel moves a little faster, the color will be pink. And if a lot of energy is exerted and the pinwheel moves quickly, the color will be red hot!

The flower that is receiving the kiss will pulse, in a similar fashion to the sleep mode LED on a Macbook. The pulse will be continuous until the receiver decides to reciprocate the kiss.

Just like in relationships, there will be no telling how well your kiss was received. The sender may think that they tried their best to send a kiss, but in actuality they were only able to muster up the energy required for a pale pink color. These types of misunderstandings happen in real life and are often serious topics of discussion. “Blowing Kisses” may invoke the conversation:

“Why did you only send a yellow kiss?”
“I am sorry, I will try harder next time.”

And we are totally OK with that.

1 comment:

t11s said...

This is really cool! Would you be interested in exhibiting this cross-country over IP?

I've been working on physical-to-physical contact over IP, you can read more at:

http://phy2phy.wikidot.com

Feel free to email me at tedwards+art at gmail.com if you are interested!