Distance Lab’s Romantic Communication Environment

Distance Lab is a group of “fearless researchers” dedicated to overcoming the disadvantages of distance using digital media technologies. They’ve created an intriguing romantic communication environment called Mutsugoto that’s meant to connect distant couples using light drawings.

They explain:

Mutsugoto is an intimate communication device intended for a bedroom environment. Instead of exchanging e-mail or SMS messages using generic interfaces in business-like venues, Mutsugoto allows distant partners to communicate through the language of touch as expressed on the canvas of the human body. A custom computer vision and projection system allows users to draw on each other’s bodies while lying in bed. Drawings are transmitted “live” between the two beds, enabling a different kind of synchronous communication that leverages the emotional quality of physical gesture.