LOS ANGELES — Adult entertainment’s technologically-driven market segments are increasingly converging, with today’s top sex toys often containing user-programmable microcomputers and even Bluetooth connectivity — with haptics and advances in body-safe, lifelike materials bridging the gaps between man and machine.
This ongoing evolution has brought us to a point in 2017 where a new generation of sex robots loom on the horizon — but will the advent of these masturbatory automatons hamper the industry’s headlong rush to its virtual future?
That is the topic of a recent commentary on VRPorn.com that highlights this increasing convergence and asks if “we will leapfrog VR altogether with the arrival of sex dolls,” such as Realbotix’s $15,000 Harmony that features programmable personality traits.
“Without belaboring the point, let’s clarify that VR porn is all about reality,” writes junderground18. “It’s for someone who doesn’t want to watch two people screwing but wants to feel he (or she) is doing it with the gorgeous starlet in front of him. It’s kind of hard, no matter how well-made the film is, for it to seem more lifelike than actually doing it.”
Junderground18 says owning (or renting) a sex robot provides sex on demand and basically replicates having sex rather than simulating it.
“It’s hard to imagine someone interested in VR porn not also being interested in robot sex, as soon as he/she saves up the dough,” junderground18 adds. “Once sex robots get beyond canned phrases and stiff behavior [to remember likes and dislikes], that could be trouble. VR porn will really have to fight to keep up, though there should be room for both technologies.”
Of course, some industry insiders predict a future that fully embraces a variety of technologies, including those that combine the presence of virtual reality with the texture of touch for a physical, not just visual, experience — providing more examples of the diversity of adult’s top growth sectors.
To explore where we are today, XBIZ Miami 2017 debuts its official VR Shootout, where the state of the art in adult digital media will be displayed and the future revealed, by and for the visionaries driving this dynamic marketplace.
For more information, click here.
