Each week, Ariel Waldman serves a tasting of the latest in sex and tech.
Getting Physical With Virtual Reality
Combining virtual avatars with physical robots, the U-Tsu-Shi-O-Mi may one day be the death of Second Life sex and/or resorting to RealDolls. The humanoid robot keeps to old school virtual reality in true form, requiring a head-mounted display for the potentially horny user.
A virtual 3D avatar that moves in sync with the robots actions is mapped onto the machines green cloth skin (the skin functions as a green screen), and the sensor-equipped head-mounted display tracks the angle and position of the viewers head and constantly adjusts the angle at which the avatar is displayed. The result is an interactive virtual 3D character with a physical body that the viewer can literally reach out and touch. Here is a video of U-Tsu-Shi-O-Mi.
Michihiko Shoji, who helped create the U-Tsu-Shi-O-Mi, wants to make the green-clothed robot ready and suitable for "general household use" eventually. We can only hope that our household has hot humanoids in the near future. At the very least, it'd be an excuse to ditch our guilty pleasure SL accounts for good.
Robots Rub YouTube The Wrong Way
"The Sex Life of Robots" trailer received many reviews across the blogosphere recently, despite being a still unfinished movie. The video clip featured, you guessed it, robots having sex. Apparently, the video clip had remained in the crevices of YouTube for almost a year before all the attention rubbed YouTube the wrong way and was pulled out. While we'd prefer to rub out to robots, internet entities seem to be not so keen on it. Regardless, Fleshbot points to alternative viewing sources for our pleasure.
New Rules For Robot Sex & Marriage
Robot sex hasn't outrun the mass media. Bill Maher (we don't watch him either) did a bit on "New Rules for Robot Sex & Marriage" on HBO. The new rules claim that if gays can't marry, than neither can robots. With a little AI research, "25 minutes alone with a vacuum cleaner", and probably a last minute "what do we have to take up time" filler, sex with robots may be the new "take my wife... please" jokes of today. We're officially cringing.
Ummmm...I don't care if it can move itself...STILL just as creepy as the real-dolls. I am convinced Real Dolls come to life at night and go on murderous rampages. The LAST thing we need is one of those with AI. Haha.
You have to clean the robot yourself. I can't imagine myself getting all hot when I've had to scrub some iof my own crust out of the robot's body. Not to mention that I wouldn't buy one in the first place.
arielwaldman
San Francisco, CA
July 2007
OCT 16, 2007 01:16 AM