Tickle Salon
(scroll naar beneden voor Nederlandse tekst)
year: 2002, version 2.0 2018
materials: mattrass, electronics, tassle, computer, screen, furniture
technique: robotic installation
Tickle Salon is an installation with a stroking robot hanging from the ceiling. The participant lies down and then a 15-minute session begins. A soft brush descends on the body, moving over the skin by means of four nylon threads. The robot has no built-in knowledge of the human body, but by groping with the brush it develops a virtual model of the person on the bed. Each time the brush collides with the body, the coordinates of the contact point are added to this model. The robot uses the model to refine its movements, allowing it to hover just above the skin. Only the tip of the brush then touches the skin, which feels very pleasurable. The robot learns, as it were, to make sensitive caresses over the skin surface. A screen next to the bed shows the current model of the body: the imagination that this "blind" robot has formed while groping.
In version 2.0, two buttons (one green and one red) allow the participant to give feedback when the caress is experienced as pleasant or irritating. The corresponding spot on the body is stored in the model and marked. The robot takes this into account when planning the route of the brush: irritation will be avoided and it will stroke more often on the spots that have been marked as pleasant.
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