Category Archives: Media

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.

I was going to start this article about robots with a not-so-clever reference to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. But then I spoke to Blay Whitby, a philosopher concerned with the social impact of emerging technologies and the trivialisation of robots in the media – and I decided otherwise.

Because when it comes to robots, it’s simply no use discussing them through the lens of our favourite film or science fiction book. Cliched as it may be, the future is here; we can and should talk about reality. Within a matter of decades we’ve become entirely reliant on technology and robots are increasingly part of our everyday lives.

The latest chapter comes courtesy of Dr Trudy Barber, a pioneer in the impact of technology on sexual intercourse. Speaking at the International Congress of Love and Sex with Robotics, Dr Barber said people’s growing immersion in technology means it’s only a matter of time before it takes a mainstream role in sex.

Put simply: sex between couples will increasingly be saved for special occasions as  robots step in to satisfy our everyday needs. Dr Barber predicted the use of artificial intelligence (AI) devices in the bedroom will be socially normal within 25 years and that the machines would enable people to appreciate ‘the real thing’.

Robots will becoming more and more life like

ex between married couples will increasingly be saved for special occasions as robots step in to satisfy everyday needs, experts have predicted.

Use of artificial intelligence (AI) devices in the bedroom will be socially normal within 25 years, an international  robotics conference has heard.

Comparing sex robots to the rise of the ebook, Dr Trudy Barber, a pioneer in the impact of technology on sexual intercourse, said the machines would enable people to greater appreciate “the real thing”.

Devices such as Rocky or Roxxxy True Companion can currently be bought for around £7,000, but advances in the field are predicted to make sex robots increasingly lifelike and affordable.

Speaking yesterday at the International Congress of Love and Sex with Robotics, Dr Barber said people’s growing immersion in technology means it was only a matter of time before it takes a mainstream role in sex.

“It could be that we are so busy with our lives, we are so embedded in our technological narrative that the idea of engaging in long-distance sex and robot sex is actually a natural process in our evolutionary cycle,” she said.

“I think what will happen is that they will make real-time relationships more valuable and exciting.”

However, AI experts have been warning that a generation of adolescents risk “losing their virginity” to humanoid devices and growing up with an unrealistic conception of sex.

In June leading scientist Dr Noel Sharkey, a former advisor to the UN, called on governments to prevent robotics being hijacked by the sex industry.

“I think what will happen is that they will make real-time relationships more valuable and exciting” – Dr Trudy Barber

Inventor Douglas Hines with his True Companion sex robot CREDIT: ROBYN BECK

But Dr Barber said the robots would effectively become an “extra human race”.

“The question is not “when will it become acceptable” but “when will we integrate”.”

“We are able to have so many colours on our sexual pallet now; I think we’d be daft not explore them.”

Questions that will face regulators involve how much data to allow robots to collect about their human partners and send back to their manufacturers.

Others include whether to legislate for purely passive robots, or to allow devices which entice humans to have sex, and whether robots would have to make clear that they are machines rather than humans.

Kate Devlin, computing expert at Goldsmiths, University of London, said it was probable future sex robots would be designed to learn their human partner’s sexual preferences to improve performance.

“Companion” devices such as the Pepper robot are being increasingly used to provide stimulation to elderly people, particularly in Asian countries such as Japan.

Created two years ago, the humanoid robot is designed with the ability to read certain emotions from analysing expressions and voice tones.

Scientists have said there is evidence the devices are being used by parents to keep their children company.

Professor Sharkey yesterday challenged the prediction that sex robots would become mainstream.

“Sex robots will be used within the next decade but it is doubtful if they will become a societal norm although surveys show that around 10% would be prepared to use them.

“They are more likely to be viewed as tools for masturbation although having a humanoid body may make a difference to the fantasy.

“Would you leave  your sex robot out if your mum came to visit?

“Prostitution has been around for thousands of years and yet has never been socially normalised.

“The problem is the same for both.

“With sex robots and prostitution, you are having a one way relationship with an object or a person that does not return your love except by pretence.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/12/19/rise-sex-robots-will-make-people-appreciate-real-thing/