“XR is going mainstream” was the motto for this year’s Augmented World Expo, the 16th annual iteration, held at the Long Beach Convention Center in Southern California from June 10 to June 12.
The popular Augmented World Expo is now in its 16th year. [Image: AWE]
Among the featured products, technologies, and services were a number that offer further clues about the involvement of XR in the world of porn. Let’s take a look at them and ponder just how they might alter or advance the ways in which you get off with virtual or real partners.
In the Palm of Your Hand
Niantic Spatial showed its geospatial AI platform, offering attendees demo experiences in which they could hold and play with a cute cartoon creature from its new Peridot mixed reality game, Hello, Dot.
Attendees enjoyed “holding” a Peridot in the palm of their hands, claiming the view from their XR headset helped make it truly feel like they were holding an adorable pet. Now, imagine it’s a monster-sized cock you’re holding as a sexy partner looks on and drools from two places…
Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese, and his family of fellow entrepreneurs made the case for intuitive mechanics and social activity, and less complicated UI systems and processes. Brent Bushnell, Nolan’s brother, brought a demo of Dream Park, a location-based-XR game that allows for interaction with virtual characters in the real, physical world. Switch the characters of Dream Park for attractive, seductive potential hookups, and you’re now in the raunchiest regions of Second Life built for the XR age.
It’s Your Sex I Can Smell
Decades after maverick American filmmaker John Waters utilized Odorama technology (a scratch-and-sniff) card to delight and revolt audiences of his 1981 comedy, Polyester, scent is once again making its way into the world of lurid entertainment.
One hilarious early attempt to augment cinema with smells, courtesy of John Waters and Odorama. [Image: New Line Cinema]
Olorama didn’t just bring AWE attendees a look at its most recent innovation, but a whiff of it, too. Paired with VR and XR experiences, Olorama’s Professional 10-Scents Compact Generator aims to amplify the feeling of immersion and realism as only the olfactory sense can. The human sense of smell – let alone that of other mammals – is the sense that most powerfully evokes memories and feelings of past experiences. Sexual activity, of course, has some powerful olfactory components, a factor Olorama or similar tech could use to seriously amplify the sexual, psychological, and emotional response of someone engaged in virtual sex.
Olorama’s device augments existing AR experiences with wafted fragrances. [Image: Olorama]
Oculus Rift creator Palmer Luckey noted that since DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in the US Department of Defense) is no longer the source for the most advanced AR, Defense would now partner with Meta, the company he recently partnered with after being fired seven years ago.
Let’s hope Palmer Luckey and Meta aren’t getting us closer to a Terminator-style reality in the near future. [Image: Skydance Productions/Annapurna Pictures]
Meta and Luckey now share a $22 billion contract with the US military to create a multimodal sensor suite gathering RF, spatial, and thermal data for real-time analysis. Called Eagle Eye, this rather daunting vision of warfare in which traditional combatants are aided and eventually replaced by AI-guided robots may be reminiscent of the Terminator series’s Skynet. A brighter view of the same tech, however, could be seen if you replace “combat” with “intimacy” in the equation. Sensitive, responsive, endlessly adaptable non-human partners certainly sound more appealing than endless warfare with or without human casualties.
Snap! You’re Me
Snapchat’s Mirror feature allows for fantastical personal customization with AR. [Image: Snap]
Snap, whose co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel delivered a first-day keynote address, also attracted large numbers of attendees with demos of its Specs and Snapchat’s Mirror. Mirror, an AR feature that overlays digital content onto a user’s reflection in a mirror, has obvious erotic and pornographic potential.
With Snap’s commitment to pushing smart-glasses to new heights and Spiegel stating “We’re obsessed with making computers more human,” it’s clear Snap will be a major contributor to whatever tech ends up in the hands of porn consumers, whether it is under their branding or not.
XR may be going mainstream but it’s also going to fill VR porn fans’ experiences with some incredible opportunities.