Light/Motion-Based 'Intimacy Simulator'

[Starglider]

I thought people here find this BBC News story interesting.

Couples to test 'intimacy' device
The device allows users to draw in light on each other

Couples in long distance relationships are being sought to try out a prototype device designed to communicate intimacy from their bedrooms.

Moray-based technology laboratory, Distance Lab, hopes to find three couples willing to use Mutsugoto.

The device allows couples, who are separated by distance, to draw in light on each other's bodies or beds.

Stefan Agamanolis, one of its three developers, said it will be the first time it is tested in this way.

Volunteers will be sought at the Edinburgh Arts Festival in August.

Distance Lab, which describes itself as a creative research organisation, hope to find couples where one partner lives in the capital while the other, who will be given a portable device, lives a few hundred miles away.

Interactive fighting

Mutsugoto has been in development for about two years and involves artist Tomoko Hayashi.

The project recently won an award from the Alt-w Production Fund.

Mr Agamanolis said the device was designed to communicate intimacy and to offer an alternative to text and e-mail messaging.

While lying on their beds miles away from each other, the couples wear touch-activated rings visible to a camera mounted above them.

A computer vision system tracks the movement of the ring as one of the device's users passes it across their own body, or bed.

At the same time these strokes are transmitted to and projected in beams of light on the body of their partner. The lines change colour if they cross.

From its base in Forres, Distance Lab runs projects in Moray and the Highlands and Islands.

It receives support from Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE).

Also in development at the site is a game in which people can throw themselves at a life-sized image of an opponent who could be on the other side of the world.

Remote Impact is an interactive fighting game.

In the prototype, people battle a silhouette projected on to a mattress and can register brute force.

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It strikes me as fairly pointless but I give them an A for effort. I do know a fair few people in 'Internet relationships' who'd give this a try if the hardware was cheap enough, and I could see webcam-strippers using it too.

[Darth Wong]

If they really wanted an intimacy simulator, they'd build a motion-sensing harness with a Fleshlight in it for the men, and a remote-controlled fucking machine for the women, so that when the man sticks his dick in the fleshlight, the machine rams a dildo into the woman, all in synchronized motion with live video. Now that would be intimacy simulation. This light-drawing thing is just weird.

[Patrick Degan]

If they really wanted an intimacy simulator, they'd build a motion-sensing harness with a Fleshlight in it for the men, and a remote-controlled fucking machine for the women, so that when the man sticks his dick in the fleshlight, the machine rams a dildo into the woman, all in synchronized motion with live video. Now that would be intimacy simulation. This light-drawing thing is just weird.

Well, this is why Distance Labs should really hire a full-time pervert for product development.

[Starglider]

If they really wanted an intimacy simulator, they'd build a motion-sensing harness with a Fleshlight in it for the men, and a remote-controlled fucking machine for the women, so that when the man sticks his dick in the fleshlight, the machine rams a dildo into the woman, all in synchronized motion with live video.

Regrettably, although technically straightforward, that isn't likely to be approved by the research grant approval committee.

Now that would be intimacy simulation.

'penetration' != 'intimacy' Maybe if you combined it with a hugbox

[Darth Wong]

Now that would be intimacy simulation.

'penetration' != 'intimacy'

So says you. According to my wife, "If there's no fucking, it's just boring."

[Starglider]

So says you. According to my wife, "If there's no fucking, it's just boring."

Well sure but if it's just fucking, and not touching her with anything but your penis at that, then it's also boring.

[General Zod]

Regrettably, although technically straightforward, that isn't likely to be approved by the research grant approval committee.

Not an American one at any rate.

[Knife]

So says you. According to my wife, "If there's no fucking, it's just boring."

Well sure but if it's just fucking, and not touching her with anything but your penis at that, then it's also boring.

wha? What the fuck are you? one of those AYV guys who've bought into the 'light touch' and 'profess their love' bits equals a relationships?

Here is a clue for you, fucking isn't all of a relationship but to focus you in on it's importance, if you can't satisfy you mate, your relationship is fucked no matter what you do outside the bedroom.

[Starglider]

wha? What the fuck are you? one of those AYV guys who've bought into the 'light touch' and 'profess their love' bits equals a relationships?

I'm married.

Here is a clue for you, fucking isn't all of a relationship but to focus you in on it's importance

Contact with the rest of the body is a critical dimension of sex; both deep pressure from grasping and thrusting and lighter stimulation of specific areas (fingernails and biting are optional but fun). Remote control dildos already exist, albeit (AFAIK) with simple vibrators rather than sex machines, but I'd still class it as fancy masturbation rather than a decent simulation of actual sex.

[Rye]

I think that's actually pretty cool, and it sparks off ideas for psychological experiments in my head.

When I read that, I want to see what people will do if they got the chance to draw on a model's body and that person has no idea who they are. Will they go straight to drawing on the tits and cock? Or will they draw smiley faces in areas less embarrassing? Would these same people then volunteer to be drawn on by the model or people they don't know?

Interesting stuff. I'd like to be drawn on by people I don't know, anyway, then watch the footage of them back.

[Coyote]

Couples would have to wear an skinsuit with pressure sensors & activators that transmit the full body experience. Although it'd be kind weird putting a little rubber glove thingy on your tongue for the "lick motion sensors".

[Darth Wong]

Remote control dildos already exist, albeit (AFAIK) with simple vibrators rather than sex machines, but I'd still class it as fancy masturbation rather than a decent simulation of actual sex.

Well duh, there's no such thing as a "decent simulation of actual sex", and there won't be for a long time. That doesn't change the fact that a body-synchronized fucking machine is still far more of a sex simulation than electronic body graffiti is.

[JointStrikeFighter]

Remote control dildos already exist, albeit (AFAIK) with simple vibrators rather than sex machines, but I'd still class it as fancy masturbation rather than a decent simulation of actual sex.

Well duh, there's no such thing as a "decent simulation of actual sex", and there won't be for a long time. That doesn't change the fact that a body-synchronized fucking machine is still far more of a sex simulation than electronic body graffiti is.

Except that it's explicitly NOT a sex simulator.

[Oni Koneko Damien]

Remote control dildos already exist, albeit (AFAIK) with simple vibrators rather than sex machines, but I'd still class it as fancy masturbation rather than a decent simulation of actual sex.

Well duh, there's no such thing as a "decent simulation of actual sex", and there won't be for a long time. That doesn't change the fact that a body-synchronized fucking machine is still far more of a sex simulation than electronic body graffiti is.

Except that it's explicitly NOT a sex simulator.

Well, it certainly isn't any more an 'intimacy simulator' than it is a sex simulator. Drawing on each other is a fetish (one that I'd personally enjoy, but that's beside the point), drawing on each other over a long distance is a fetish without the actual intimacy. By that logic I could call a webcam/mic show involving someone giving orders on one end and someone with a collar and leash on the other end an 'intimacy simulator'.

[Darth Wong]

Remote control dildos already exist, albeit (AFAIK) with simple vibrators rather than sex machines, but I'd still class it as fancy masturbation rather than a decent simulation of actual sex.

Well duh, there's no such thing as a "decent simulation of actual sex", and there won't be for a long time. That doesn't change the fact that a body-synchronized fucking machine is still far more of a sex simulation than electronic body graffiti is.

Except that it's explicitly NOT a sex simulator.

Do I really have to point out that in a sexually repressive society, "intimacy" is often used as a politically acceptable synonym for "sex"? If I say I want to get intimate with my wife, nobody says "Aha, you wish to draw on her!"

[Mr Bean]

Do I really have to point out that in a sexually repressive society, "intimacy" is often used as a politically acceptable synonym for "sex"? If I say I want to get intimate with my wife, nobody says "Aha, you wish to draw on her!"

Ahah!
Wait, what if your a body-painting artist, does that mean if you draw on another woman your cheating on your wife?

To say this is an intimacy simulator is silly, intimacy implies closeness in our language. No doubt in some backward sexuality repressed parts of the planet removing your wife's head scarf is the cultural equivalent of tug and rub. But under the commonly held accepted principles, it's nothing of the sort. It's not intimate in any sense.

It's at best, long distance body-art... congratulations? I don't think you'll make it in any history books there, but maybe you might get a nod in a Porn catalog and the precursor for some kind of remote fucking machine.

[Oni Koneko Damien]

I'm with Rye on this one. I think it's a great idea, and would love to have fun drawing on attractive people/being drawn on in a semi-anonymous setting like that. I'm an exhibitionist, and can appreciate certain other exhibitionists.

But as far as long-distance sex-play goes? I really doubt this is going to replace talking smutty on the phone or giving your long-distance SO a cam-show.

[Sea Skimmer]

If they really wanted an intimacy simulator, they'd build a motion-sensing harness with a Fleshlight in it for the men, and a remote-controlled fucking machine for the women, so that when the man sticks his dick in the fleshlight, the machine rams a dildo into the woman, all in synchronized motion with live video. Now that would be intimacy simulation. This light-drawing thing is just weird.

Someone actually kind of already did that years ago, except it was basically a fleshlight that moved in synch with specific pornos via a computer hookup. It was being sold online for a while.

[TheMuffinKing]

This article leads me to believe that the creators watched "lawnmower man" and "Demolition Man" one too many times in an effort to develop a future sex machine.