Page 62 - AVN January 2016

FEATURE
Virtual Touch
The interactive dream is becoming a reality with new devices
Bluetooth technology and simulated body heat, all within Topco’s patented
Cyberskin material.
“It took us over two years to bring TwerkingButt from concept to reality.
Our development team worked tirelessly to combine the latest wireless, app
and optical technologies as well as our patented Cyberskin, which simulates
the sensual feel of true skin-to-skin contact,” said Michael Siegel, then COO
of Topco Sales, when the product debuted in July 2015. “With the included
virtual reality goggles and downloadable 3D content, it becomes a truly
immersive experience.”
To date, most of the products and ideas about combining sex toys with
haptic and/or virtual reality technology have centered around masturbation
devices for men. In addition to the RealTouch and TwerkingButt, Fleshlight
debuted the VStroker. The individually personalized fully interactive sex toy
for men, the VStroker is an attachment pairs with a Fleshlight product and
studies users’ penetration and motion and transmits the information to a
designated computer via wireless USB connection. While viewing live-action
cinema on a Mac or PC, users are in total control of every thrust and can
virtually bring the look, feel and motion of a favorite adult performer into the
privacy of their own homes.
In its partnership with European company Kiiroo last year, Fleshlight went
even further in the interactive universe. Fleshlight provides the Real Feel
Super Skin materials for use in the sleeves of Kiiroo’s Onyx masturbator, which
can be linked up to the Kiiroo Pearl device. The Pearl looks like a traditional
vibrator, but is loaded inside with sensors that translate friction, intensity
and other bits of data remotely to the Onyx masturbator. The Pearl can also
function as a solo vibrator. The toys can be used with an app that produces
shared sensations.
Most recently Kiiroo has teamed up with Datoro Media to launch a
new interactive site, FeelPornStars.com, where fans can interact with adult
performers virtually by viewing videos that produce sensations in the Onyx
masturbator. The site launched with content featuring Tanya Tate, Lisa Ann,
Bobbi Eden and Jasmine Jae, and by mid-May the following stars had been
added: Asa Akira, Nikki Benz, Jessica Drake, Sasha Grey, Jenna Haze, Audrey
Hollander, Katsuni, Misty Stone and Alexis Texas.
“I am excited that my fans can really feel me now when they purchase their
own Tanya Tate Experience. Not only will they get to feel my pussy around
them, but they can also interact with me by watching my videos. This is the
closest they can get to having sex with me,” Tate said.
Retailers can place wholesale orders of Kiiroo’s Onyx masturbator and Pearl
vibrator and the various Fleshlight models from adult distributors, including
Eldorado Trading Company and Eropartner.
Also benefiting from the collaboration between Kiiroo and Fleshlight
are cam performers, who can use the Onyx and Pearl devices for their
own purposes. Cam performer Natalie Starr, for instance, stayed busy in
the Flirt4Free booth at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo earlier this year
showing off her own Fleshlight to fans.
Attendees of the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo may be familiar with the
Piu, from ImToy. Also for men, the Piu vibrates in sync with various erotic
movies via a smart device. An accompanying free app allows users to
download films from an expanding collection of adult content programmed
to mimic the rhythm and action on the screen.
Despite all the readily available items for men looking to get their rocks off
in a virtual reality world, there are still those who dream big. Japanese erotic
game developer Illusion announced the development of a full-body virtual
reality sex suit so men can have sex in VR with an anime character thanks
to the incorporation of a Samsung Gear VR headset, a Tenga masturbation
device and prosthetic breasts.
“The suit, by the way, was an April Fool’s joke,” said Eddie Marklew, who
handles global marketing for Tenga. Marklew said Tenga is not working
with Illusion on any products, but noted the game development company
has already created some products using the Tenga Cup series as the
masturbation device.
“The device for VR plus Forcefeedback controller plus Tenga is apparently
in the works,” Marklew said. “Again, this is by Illusion so we don’t know
anything about the progress or if they really are trying to make a sellable
product.”
—Sherri L. Shaulis
For as long as people have
dreamed of flying cars, so have
they dreamed of sex robots. But
unlike modes of transportation a
la The Jetsons, pleasure products
manufacturers have embraced
available technology to bring
us closer to Woody Allen’s
Orgasmatron.
These days, manufacturers
are looking for ways to pair
their wares with virtual reality
technology. One of the first leaps
into sex in a virtual word came
with Second Life. The online
virtual world launched in 2003
and soon after Residents learned
they could build stores and use
currency to interact, they took
it a step further by interacting
physically. From there, the idea
of virtual sex took another big
leap with the introduction of the
RealTouch from AEBN.
The RealTouch was a male
masturbation device that utilized
haptic technology to allow the
device to sync up with specially
coded adult videos and simulate
the experience a man viewed
on the screen. While in use, the
RealTouch would mimic the feel,
heat and moisture levels show in
the movie.
Since then, as VR porn is
starting to find its footing, fans of
virtual reality and sex toys have
tried to create the Next Big Thing
to take the world by storm.
Topco Sales last summer
announced its partnership
with PornHub to create the
TwerkingButt, which provides
an interactive cyber experience
with multiple twerking patterns,
customizable rhythms, massage
speeds, sensual vibrations,
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convince every household they need a VR headset.
That is, as long as the manufacturers are smart
enough to stay out of the way. HTC or Oculus don’t
need to embrace the porn industry necessarily, but
they need to not actively try and defeat it. Just look at
what happened to poor Betamax when Sony decided it
wanted nothing to do with pornography. The industry
embraced VHS and the rest is history.”
Similarly, Mashable.com’s article, “Virtual reality
porn is here,” begins with the observation, “There are
three questions people tend to ask when virtual reality
comes up in conversation[:] ‘Will it make me sick?’;
‘When can I buy it?’ and ‘Is there porn on it yet?’”
In fact, “virtually” no one in the tech world doubts
that VR will be the Next Big Thing in entertainment,
and as soon as Hollywood figures out how to monetize
it—VR theaters that resemble Star Trek’s holodeck?—
the symbiosis between mainstream VR content and
porn will be inevitable, with millions of adults opting
for high-end viewing devices ostensibly to see films
like Avengers VR but sneaking down in the dead of
night to watch XXX VR Vixens. And who wouldn’t pay
good money to see the VR version of “A Day On A
Porn Set,” where viewers can follow actresses from
the bedroom into the dressing rooms, the lunch room,
maybe even the bathroom?
HoloFilm Productions, of course, already has
what it calls “syntholograms”: computer-animated
women, often based on real-life porn stars, who are
programmed to perform whatever virtual sexual act
the user wants, and sex toy manufacturer Kiiroo has
already partnered with BaDoink to sell masturbators—
male and female—that will respond to cues embedded
within VR content, so that whatever the virtual
woman is doing on-screen, the penis sleeve is doing in
the user’s lap.
Also being talked about is “augmented reality”
(AR), where the HMD takes the created content and
overlays it onto the real world. Sure, it’s great to
watch your favorite porn star giving you virtual head
in a porn-set setting—but what if she could be seen
doing it in your own bedroom? That’s not too far
away.
As to the future of VR, it’s tough to say—so let’s
talk about VR’s present. The New York Times, of all
places, is offering VR scenes of the presidential
candidates, homeless immigrants and Paris protests
on its website, and some real estate companies are
filming VR walk-throughs for properties they want
to sell. Several e-tailers expect to incorporate VR
into their websites to aid shoppers in deciding which
items to buy. And according to Gizmodo, even Barack
Obama has tried VR.
But the truth is, virtual reality is currently at such
an early stage of development that, to quote former
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in the run-up
to the Iraq War, “There are known knowns. ... There
are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things
that we know we don’t know. But there are also
unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know
we don’t know.”
And that’s about the best anyone short
of an engineer can say about the future of
virtual reality, both in porn and in the rest of
ENDthe world.