Page 56 - AVN March 2017

FEATURE
THE NEXT DIMENSION
At AEE 2017, reality gets a whole lot more virtual
AVN SHOW 2017 | By Mark Kernes
This year’s AVN Adult Entertainment Expo
represented something of a revolution for the
adult industry. In the last couple of years, live
webcam companies have vied with adult studios
as the most dominant force on the show floor.
But this year companies producing virtual reality
(VR) content stepped up in both number and
prominence. Though the lines of fans seeking
autographs and selfies with stars were longer at
the video booths, eight VR-related companies
were only too happy to slide a headset over the
ears of any expo attendee to give each a taste of
how they’ll be enjoying their porn likely in the
very near future—if they aren’t doing so already.
Perhaps the company that’s gotten the most
mainstream press for its VR products over the
past few months in CamSoda, which announced
in December that it was offering what it calls
“holographic” porn that users could watch on
their smartphones using a transparent pyramid
“viewer.” Then, as the AVN Expo approached,
the company rolled out its OhRoma add-on: A
gas-mask-looking device that can be filled with
Bluetooth-controlled scent canisters so that VR
viewers can not only see and hear their favorite
stars perform, but smell them as well.
“We’re the site that’s gonna experiment,”
CamSoda CEO Daron Lundeen told Engadget. “If
you got a new idea, a new technology that’s out
there, we want to grab it, and try it, and use it. ...
I think that’s where adult probably has a leg up
on most other industries. We can put something
like the hologram together very quickly without a
whole lot of red tape.”
To be fair, CamSoda’s “holographic” product,
dubbed “Holo-Cam,” isn’t actually holographic, in
56 | AVN.com | 3.17
that it’s a video projection—no lasers involved—
onto a pyramid-shaped clear plastic screen
that can be rotated so the viewer can see, for
instance, a woman stripping out of her clothes
from four different angles, as fans could see at
the company’s booth in Artist Hall. (Another VR
company, Holodexxx, had announced a similar
product early last year at the show, but it has yet
to put anything on the market.)
Perhaps more intriguing, though, was
CamSoda’s promise of someone being able
to experience a b.j. or cowgirl session with a
beautiful woman, using a teledildonic-capable
Fleshlight or similar stroker to feel the woman’s
mouth or pussy as she’s employing it in the VR,
and actually smell her perfume or sweat through
the OhRoma mask as she’s riding the user’s cock
into a real-life orgasm.
“Quite simply, OhRoma takes the virtual
reality experience to the next level,” Lundeen told
TechCrunch. “It’s unlike anything anyone has
ever experienced before, delivering a heightened
sensation of pure unadulterated ecstasy, allowing
them to completely immerse themselves in the
experience, and we’re excited for our fans to try
it out.”
The idea of adding smell to a visual
presentation is hardly new. Since the 1950s,
producers have on rare occasions released movies
where the price of admission included either a
scratch ’n’ sniff card which audience members
were invited to employ at various points to give
them a whiff of the action they were seeing, or
they simply released the scent right into the
theater’s ventilation system, as was done with the
1960 film Scent of Mystery. Even AVN got into the
swing of things in 1996 when it brought to market Smells Like ...
Sex, a video feature released on laserdisc that included its own
scratch ’n’ sniff card.
To create its OhRoma system, CamSoda went to companies
that already provide aromas to supplement print advertising—
remember those ads in Playboy or Penthouse where the edge of
the page is folded over, and when unfolded, the scent of perfume
or cologne is released?—to create tiny canisters which, when
loaded into the OhRoma mask, allow users to smell such things
as “body odor,” “private parts,” “panties,” “fragrances” and other
hopefully aphrodisiac scents.
Which isn’t to say the system is working perfectly: CamSoda
sent some samples of the “private parts” scent to the folks
at Mic.com for testing, and while two of the site’s employees
correctly guessed that they were smelling “vagina,” others
described the scent as “a musty book,” “dirty socks,” “baby
powder with floral notes” and “cod liver oil,” to report a few.
Several adult stars are already excited about the concept,
though.
“There are a lot of guys who watch my shows who tell me,
‘God, I wish I could smell you,’” Florida-based cam model
Victoria Ryan told David Moye of the Huffington Post. “And
some will drop $50 just to buy my panties.”
Ryan describes her personal scent, which she composed
herself, as “a fruity musky scent that would blend with a flowery
perfume,” though the 22-year-old cautioned, “I imagine I will
want to change that smell when I hit MILF status.”
Another star who can’t wait to incorporate scent into her VR
products is Ela Darling, who describes herself as “the first VR
camgirl.” She co-founded VRTube.xxx in late 2015, as well as
Cam4’s live VR division, Cam4VR.
“That is a really exciting thing,” Darling told AVN.
HOLO DECK Nikki Hearts, Charlotte Sartre, Leigh Raven, ShreddZ, Cherie DeVille and Saman-
tha Mack at the HologirlsVR/BurningAngelVR booth.. Photo by Rick Garcia/@IndustryByRick