Monday, Apr 18, 2005    Text size: 

Called "sex androids," this new breed of sex doll was developed by Michael Harriman, a German airplane mechanic whose goal was to create a doll as close to a living, breathing human as possible that can perform basic body movements by remote control.

Sold under the Andy brand name of android dolls for around $7,600, the robot sex doll is built with an electronic heart that beats faster during sex. The doll also comes with an internal heater that raises body temperature at the flip of a switch, invoking what the inventor hopes will be a more life-like sexual experience for consumers, in addition to features such as silicon skin and customizable breast size.

The Andy brand name was developed by Germany-based Daxtron Laboratories Inc., which has been at work on non-sexual and sexual genetic programming and android technology projects since 1987. The new robot doll joins a list of similar life-like sex dolls developed by Daxtron.

"They [the dolls] are almost impossible to distinguish from the real thing, but I am still developing improvements and I will only be happy when what I have is better than the real thing," Harriman told the news media, adding that the dolls' feet stay cold like in real life even though the rest of their bodies grow warm to the touch.

To support the rising popularity of android sex dolls, there is also a newsgroup called alt.sex.fetish.robots that is dedicated to discussing the concept of sex with or sexual attraction to robots, which according to the newsgroup can range from metallic and non-humanoid machines to humanoid androids. The newsgroup deals with specific fantasies, fiction relating to the topic and connected ideas.