[ExI] Kiss Device (was Re: buttload)

Kelly Anderson kellycoinguy at gmail.com
Mon May 9 22:35:41 UTC 2011


On Mon, May 9, 2011 at 3:23 PM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
>>... On Behalf Of Samantha Atkins
>>...That is about the dumbest device I have ever seen.  Wake me up when they
>> can wire our brains together close enough for intended touch (and so on)
>> to be actually felt  - samantha

I think women are going to be a little harder to please in this area
than men in general.

I think haptic interfaces will get much better than they are now prior
to the brain interface that you envision. Also, I think a lot of money
will be made with mediocre haptics in the near and mid term future.

> Hmmm, wiring our brains together isn't on the immediate horizon.  But we can
> imagine plenty of cool stuff that could be done now, ja?  Agreed this
> kissing thing isn't it, but it suggests the next obvious step.

Like I said, it will be easier to satisfy (if that's the right word,
and I think it is ;-) men than women. Although a remote controlled
Sybian, with a nice Skype connection, while not exactly simulating
sex, would probably be fairly satisfying to many women. Again, it is
pretty darned expensive.

>>...In the meantime 3D avatars, a bit of animation, imagination and a bit of
> role play works well enough to be interesting.  :)
>
> Perhaps but I am thinking of actual hardware to go along with the animation
> and avatars.  It just seems like we have all the elements in place here, the
> controls tech, the mechanical feedback devices, the transducers, the
> bandwidth.  It again surprises me no one has successfully integrated all of
> it to make a far more elaborate version of the tele-smoocher.  It wouldn't
> be great, at least at first.  I can imagine a suit of sorts, with a number
> of separately inflatable bladders to simulate a hand stroking a participant.

Inflation of a bladder gives only a press-release feeling, not a
stroking across the skin feeling... Getting touch remote to work well
is honestly a difficult problem.

> We have the Wii controllers, and the lightweight compact optical angular
> rate sensors and so forth.
>
> I better stop here, for every time I mention this, I find there are
> companies doing this sort of thing, but I am so not hip I don't know about
> it.

The most serious commercial effort I know of is the one Eugen referenced:
http://www.realtouch.com/
It seems to be aimed exclusively towards men at this point, but deep
inside the website they have announced a female product to be
available sometime in the future.

It does have a remote controlled aspect, although I haven't dug in
enough at this point to know how capable it is. If anyone would like
to fund some research... I might be convinced to do some hands off
investigating ;-)

> It occurred to me the other day that the reason this whole notion doesn't
> appear to be going forward is that it just costs too much.

I sincerely doubt that it's a money issue. People (granted a small
group) have spent $5000 for a RealDoll. People spend $1000-$5000 a
night for a really high end escort. So I think it is either some kind
of psychological barrier that most people won't venture past, or the
products just don't deliver to the point that word of mouth spreads.

I saw a television show once that talked to guys who used realdolls,
and many of them had purchased several. One guy had 5, and in the
documentary, introduced his real world girlfriend to his five dolls.
The documentary indicated that she left him some time later. Go
figure.

Another fellow had to send his only doll in for repair. He was a
basket case until it came back. He still lived with his parents.
Strange cat. Seems like cat or something along those lines might have
been his actual name...

Word of mouth is hard in this area in any case. When is the last time
you talked to your girlfriends about your favorite vibrator
Samantha... ;-)

I understand that there is a kind of tupperware party for female sex
toys that has caught on in some parts of the country. Probably not in
Utah...

> Anyone who has
> the money for all this elaborate teledildonics could easily just hire a
> bio-unit to take care of one's needs.  Humans are difficult competition in
> that area.  Once I sat down and started trying to estimate the cost of
> building a screwbot, it gets to into the five digit numbers very quickly,
> not counting the unknown repair and maintenance costs.

Yes, it is expensive. Yet there exists a group of men who are so
uncomfortable dealing with real women, that there is a market for such
devices. Following a typical expense curve the prices should come
down, and the devices will also work better. If enough people buy
them.

-Kelly




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