Year: 2016

Lovers separated by distance can see and talk to each other using the internet – but what about sharing a smooch?

The Kissenger is a gadget that’s been knocking around university research labs for the last few years and aims to let couple kiss each other through the internet.

It’s a brightly-coloured smartphone holster with an inviting plastic pad attached to the bottom. You lock lips with the pad and it transmits the sensation through to an identical holster and an identical pad that’s nestling your partner’s phone wherever that may be.

“Kissing is the most direct and universal expression of intimacy and affection,” explained Emma Yann Zhang, who worked on the prototype.

“It’s a way for us to bond and maintain intimacy in our relationships,” she told an audience at the Love and Sex with Robots congress as Goldsmiths, University of London.

“Also, it’s stress reducing; when we engage in this kind of intimate physical touch, we have a lower level of blood pressure.”

The Kissenger works with pressure sensors and actuators that record and transmit the your kiss to the receiving device, which recreates it for the person on the other end through an app that also features videocalling.

The creators admit that there’s still a way to go when it comes to accurately creating a long-distance makeout session. For starters, the pad isn’t mouth-shaped (although the actuators are lined like lips) and there’s no simulation for a tongue.

But the creators insist that it’s already helping to get people accustomed to machine-based touching. And, moreover, that it’s not being used in an overtly sexual way.

“Parents can also use Kissenger to give their children a kiss on the cheek when they are away at work,” say its creators.

Zhang explained that the next stage of the Kissenger is to build scent into the prototype. So you can get the authentic smell of the person you want to kiss.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/send-kiss-through-internet-remarkable-9485904

You may think that what goes on between you and your sex robot in the privacy of your own home is nobody’s business but your own.

But experts have warned that – like fitness trackers and smart TVs – many of these futuristic sex toys will record and store personal data about how people use and store them.

Unless questions are asked about how and why this data is being used, things could go badly wrong, according to Dr Kate Devlin, a senior lecturer in the Department of Computing at Goldsmiths, University of London.

“Right now my big concern is about data,” explained Dr Kate Devlin, during a keynote session at the Second International Congress on Love and Sex with Robots in London this week.

“We tick the box of the terms and conditions without checking them.”

Dr. Devlin cited the case of Standard Innovation, a US-based tech company that makes internet-connected sex toys under the We-Vibe branding, which is currently being sued.

The company is being accused of recording incredibly personal data – including things like vaginal temperature and preferred intensity setting – without the user’s consent.

The woman’s lawyer, Eve-Lynn Rapp, said: “This is one of the more incredible invasions of privacy we’ve ever dealt with.”

“We do collect certain limited data to help us improve our products and for diagnostic purposes,” Standard Innovation said in a statement .

“As a matter of practice, we use this data in an aggregate, non-identifiable form.”

Dr Devlin said that, in some cases, collecting personal data can be useful.

“For example, if it is fed back into the product to make it better,” she says, highlighting a thermometer gadget called Daysy that offers menstrual cycle tracking.

User feedback has also been proven to improve the product’s accuracy.

“But do we want people to know when we have sex and how we have sex?” she asked.

The argument is that if data collection is not monitored it could very easily turn into a slippery slope of personal data collection which is then open to hackers.

Despite raising concerns about both the data collection and the objectification of women that are by-products of sex robots, Dr Devlin argues that they are a positive development.

“There are a lot of heath benefits. You can be attached to something that’s not human and we’re already providing a lot of health and therapeutic technology to help older people in care homes. Why can we not provide sex tech as well?”

“The other thing that concerns me is the sexism. Women are massively underrepresented in the technology world and we see that reflected in the products.”

Back in 2007, artificial intelligence researcher David Levy from the University of Maastricht told LiveScience that people could be marrying robots – and consummating their vows – by 2050.

Although it might not appeal at first, he said, “once you have a story like ‘I had sex with a robot, and it was great!’ appear someplace like Cosmo magazine, I’d expect many people to jump on the bandwagon.”

In his PhD thesis, “Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners”, Levy stated that the more human-like robots become in terms of personality, function and appearance, the more likely they are to form romantic partners for real people.

“It may sound a little weird, but it isn’t,” he said.

The Love and Sex with Robots congress is running at Goldsmiths, University of London from December 19-20.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/sex-robots-could-reveal-your-9484716

Long-distance relationships can be difficult and, while apps like FaceTime, Snapchat and Skype mean lovers can see and talk to each other – what about real physical intimacy? Enter: the Kissenger.

A gadget that enables couples to kiss each other through the internet, the Kissenger –  derived from the words kiss and messenger – has been the subject of university lab tests for the last couple of years.

So how does it work?

Essentially, it’s a brightly-coloured holster that attaches to your smartphone with an inviting plastic pad attached at the bottom.

When you lock lips with it, the pad senses pressure points and transmits the sensation through to an identical holster on your partner’s phone, wherever they may be.

“Kissing is the most direct and universal expression of intimacy and affection,” Emma Yann Zhang, who worked on the prototype, told an audience at the Love and Sex with Robots congress at Goldsmiths, University of London.

“It’s a way for us to bond and maintain intimacy in our relationships.”

The creators of the device say it has also helped users get on-board with machine-based touching and while it is aimed at couples, it can be used outside of romantic relationships. “Parents can also use Kissenger to give their children a kiss on the cheek when they are away at work,” its creators said.

While they admit that a lot more work is needed to create a more lifelike make out experience the next stages of development are already underway.

Subsequently, the team are now looking to build scent into the Kissenger, so the user can get the authentic smell of the person that they want to kiss.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/love-sex/kissenger-kissing-app-mobile-partner-girlfriend-boyfriend-anywhere-world-a7487306.html

While many people are of the opinion that sex robots are for the lonesome, a new survey suggests otherwise.

The survey revealed that almost half of the male population, single or in a relationship, could buy a sex robot within the next five years.

At the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany, Jessica Szczuka, co-authored a study which focused on what is likely to influence men as to whether or not to buy a sex robot.

A whopping 40.3 percent of the 263 straight males that were surveyed for Ms. Szczuka’s research said that they could imagine using a sex robot within the next five years.

According to Szczuka, the responses didn’t vary between those that were single and those in relationships.

She also suggested that the number may be higher in the real world as participants may have lied in the survey.

Speaking at the Love and Sex With Robots congress at Goldsmiths University in London, she said, “If people have the guts to say ‘yeah I could imagine that’, that’s a good sign”.

She also believes that as people grow familiar to the robots, the number “will double over time”.

While just under half of men could imagine buying a sex robot within five years, more than two-thirds of males could imagine using them.

Although, the most likely people to use one will be socially anxious people.

“Someone with a fear of rejection could control the robot because the robot would never reject them.”

Machines that are built like women for sexual purposes are becoming more and more popular. In countries like Japan, it has already caused a decrease in traditional sexual encounters between human beings.

In countries like Japan, it has already caused a decrease in traditional sexual encounters between human beings.

Awesome. I hope so. I hope more people dump their seed all over movie theater chairs or in robots. The planet is overpopulated enough.

Spanish researchers are currently developing virtual reality porn theaters where the audience will be able to take part in virtual orgies with the actors. Via touch screen, 3D glasses, surround sound, and vibrating seats, up to twelve people at a time will be able to engage in virtual gangbangs with stars. In the future, this may even involve sex robots to make the shows interactive.

The Daily Mail reports that Christina Portales of the University of Valencia told experts at a recent Love and Sex with Robots conference (yeah, that’s totally real) in London:

All senses have been integrated. People will see, people will smell, people will touch. They will feel the movement. It is not an individual activity. It is a group.

Inventors say this will be more addictive than porn. I’ll bet you ten dollars it makes sex obsolete.