At ITP, we try to use existing technology in novel and expressive ways. The easier the technology is to utilize (or hack), the more useful it is to us. Twitter and its API are perfect for this. But your point that Twitter’s position within the culture would have more impact on Kickbee’s use than my original intent is a good one. I lean towards software development, and one of the truisms of software development is that there are always users who interact with an application in unexpected ways. I suppose in the case of Kickbee it’s a definite possibility.

I suppose one question I’d like to explore is, is there a way that sensory experience AND mediated experience can coexist? Can these mediated experiences augment our reality satisfactorily, without *replacing* sensory experiences? For example, if Kickbee were publicly available, would fathers really stop feeling their wives bellies with their own hands when a baby kicked? Or would it extend their ability to take part in this ritual, albeit in a filtered way? And in the case of sharing the experience with others, is it wrong to allow a pregnant mother’s parents or siblings to be aware of the fetus’s activity?

Jan Eric – I haven’t put a lot of thought into extending Kickbee’s haptic output, but it would be intriguing to transform the touch awareness of a kick to another sense, like audio. As for the question about whether Kickbee would change a mother’s experience of pregnancy, I think that knowing that the father can somehow be “in sync” with her physical experience might enhance their bond.

Thanks for the great discussion, everyone!

when nano-sized diagnostic devices may be able to monitor 30, 50 or 100 biochemical and physiological parameters, when the data can be sent via new generations of miniaturized internal RFID transponders to [my daughter's] mobile ‘phone’ (or whatever such a thing will then be called), which in turn will transmit continuous vital data from her and everybody else to the transnational population bio-control center in Beijing.

I’m not sure I think about this as ‘progress’ in healthcare, but rather in more dystopic terms.

I agree with Thomas that a device like Kickbee is very likely to at some point become something other than a substitute for direct sensory experience and instead work as an instrument for enhancement or even correction of sensory impressions. In my view, that does not detract from the very sympathic intentions Corey has with his invention. But it certainly is interesting to speculate about the kind of DIY pre-natal diagnostics that might grow out of the data flow transmitted by Kickbee. And who will work out the algorithms that can predict the sex of the child?

I was perhaps a trifle unfair with respect to the intention of the Kickbee. I can certainly see its value in situations where a significant other is physically removed from the foetus’s immediate kicking action, and I don’t have quarrels with this — on the contrary (and I should have said so in the post) I think this is a great idea.

However, as historians of science and technology know, inventions (devices, ideas, theories, whatever) begin to live a life of their own after they leave the laboratory. As you say, Kickbee has received its acclaim mostly due to its novel use of Twitter. When an invention leaves the lab it becomes a part of culture, and its meaning grows out of how the users (the market, the reviewers etc.) understand it and make sense of it (well, it’s a part of culture already in the process of construction but that’s another aspect that I leave out here).

So even if your intention has been Kickbee’s ability to bridge the distance between a father and his mother and growing child, it looks like the reviewers (and potentially the users) interpret it as a device which adds yet another layer of mediation beteen the physical reality and our senses. So even if you, as the inventor, don’t want to bracket the feeling of immediate touch, you cannot control how reviewers turn it into a Twitter-generating gadget.

And that was my point — that the cultural use of Kickbee may risk sustaining the dominance of the visual senses and textual interpretation of the world at the expense of the sense of touch. So that even if you see it as a supplement to touch, users may unfortunately rather value it as a substitute for touch.

As I mentioned in my description and blog posts, Kickbee was not designed to replace the haptic experience of feeling our child move in the womb. There is certainly no substitute for feeling that tiny rumble in a mother’s belly with your hand. It was when I was AWAY from my wife…when there was no possibility of an unmediated haptic experience…did I find that I wanted to have some way of maintaining the awareness of the baby’s presence and vitality.

The initial concept for Kickbee was to create two devices, the belt for the mother and another belt or perhaps wristband for the father that would replicate the haptic experience. Of course, it would only be a mere shadow of the actual sensation, but the ability to have SOME sense of its movement was compelling enough. More importantly, the experience could be transmitted through space to allow a slice of the experience through.

Since the project was completed in the context of a graduate school class, I realized that I did not have the time or resources to develop two devices. I then realized that I always had a mobile phone with me. Its vibrating motor and always-on network would make a fine “client” for me to work with. As an avid Twitterer, I was familiar with the Twitter API and its ability to send SMS messages to feed subscribers. Originally I created a private Twitter account that only my wife and I would share…although there was talk of letting our parents and siblings in on it. When a kick was sent to Twitter, a message could be sent to my phone prompting it to vibrate in my pocket. This vibration was the core of my intentional output. Once the project was complete and was to be presented, I opened the account up publicly.

It’s important to note that Twitter only acts as an SMS trigger and data log. Yes, this medium comes between the physical world and our senses…but its intent, as with most communications technologies, was to allow a sliver of the experience to be transmitted across a distance. Even though a telephone conversation or even a video chat pales in comparison to a face-to-face meeting, we still use these tools because they are better than no communication at all.

Kickbee was never intended to be used in my presence. In fact, since the semester ended and I’ve been home with my wife over the holidays, she has only worn it when I was working on improving it, or demonstrating its operation to others. It just feels WRONG for her to be wearing it when I can just slide over on the couch and feel her belly while the baby’s being active.

Once Kickbee started receiving press and I received comments about it, I became aware that there are plenty of fathers who are simply unable to have the intimate experience of feeling with their own hands their babies kick in the womb at all, and for whom Kickbee would help maintain a connection to that experience. Whether it was military personnel stationed overseas or fathers who were forced to travel often or for long periods of time for their careers, there is a significant population that has no choice but to have a mediated experience. They would prefer that to no experience of it at all.

I believe much of the acclaim Kickbee has received is mostly due to its novel use of Twitter. Unfortunately, this has been the focus of the discussion, rather than Kickbee’s ability to bridge the distance between a father and his mother and growing child.