Teledildonics

{{Short description|Integration of telepresence with sexual activity}}

Teledildonics (also known as cyberdildonics) is the name coined for virtual sex encounters using networked electronic sex toys to mimic and extend human sexual interaction. The term became known after technology critic and writer Howard Rheingold used it in his 1991 book Virtual Reality.{{Cite web|date=2016-08-19|title=Where Did the Word Teledildonics Come From?|url=https://futureofsex.net/remote-sex/word-teledildonics-come/|access-date=2020-10-20|website=Future of Sex|language=en-US}} In the publication, Rheingold made futuristic conclusions and summaries surrounding technology and used the term 'teledildonics' to refer to remote sexual activity using technology. Nowadays, the term is commonly used to describe remote sex (or, at least, remote mutual masturbation), where tactile sensations are communicated over a remote connection between the participants. The term can also refer to the integration of telepresence with sexual activity that these interfaces make possible and can be used in conjunction or interchangeably with sex-technology. The term has also been used less accurately (since there's no "tele-" element) to refer to robotic sex, i.e., computer-controlled sex toys that aim to substitute for or improve upon sex with a human partner.Stein, Joel [https://web.archive.org/web/20070428130456/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,997256,00.html "Will cybersex be better than real sex?"] Time magazine, June 19, 2000. Retrieved July 23, 2008{{cite news

|first= Stuart |last=Jeffries

|title= Review of "Love and Sex with Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships" (book by David Levy)

|newspaper= The Guardian

|quote= we're in for a cybersexual revolution that will make the pill a negligible historical footnote.

|date= 10 May 2008

|url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/may/10/society

|access-date= 8 February 2011

}} Nowadays, it is commonly used to refer to Bluetooth-enabled sex toys.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}

Background

Teledildonics is commonly used to describe Bluetooth-enabled sex toys, many of which have entered the market in the last decade. As well as being open to a remote connection for control, some toys can also be connected with corresponding devices to deliver synchronized movements between couples and remote partners. Teledildonics have also been used within the adult industry to create 'immersive' webcam shows, whereby users control the vibrations of the webcammers sex toy.{{Cite web|title=Cam Girls Are Charging Clients to Control Their Vibrators Over the Internet|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/ae35be/cam-girls-are-hacking-teledildonics-to-make-virtual-sex-feel-real|access-date=2020-10-20|website=www.vice.com|date=8 October 2015 |language=en}} Some media outlets have reported on 'teldildonic' technology used by long-distance couples in order to maintain sexual relations.{{Cite web|title=Kiiroo Onyx+ Review: Does It Work With the OhMiBod Fuse?|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxewpm/kiiroo-onyx-ohmibod-fuse-sex-toy-review|access-date=2020-10-20|website=www.vice.com|date=May 2020 |language=en}}

As well as offering remote functions, many teledildonic toys can be synchronized with pornography movies. Synchronization of porn with teledildonic or Bluetooth toys actions are controlled by means of a previously-written script. A report in 2008 suggested that teledildonics, along with text and email and webcams, can be used to "wind each other up to fever pitch during the working day" as a prelude to sex with a human during the evening hours.{{cite news

|author= Stuart Jeffries

|title= How has The Joy of Sex changed since 1972?

|newspaper= The Guardian

|quote= ... Text, email, webcams, teledildonics can all be used to wind each other up to fever pitch during the working day prior to extended evening action ...

|date= 9 September 2008

|url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/sep/09/healthmindandbody.relationships

|access-date= 2011-02-08

}} New technologies can help people establish "emotional connections" via the web.{{cite news

|author= Aleks Krotoski

|title= What effect has the internet had on our sex lives?

|newspaper= The Guardian

|quote= And the web is all about helping people establish emotional connections. Throw in some erotic imagery, augmented teledildonics technologies, or a bit of sexting or Skyping, and you have the makings of a rather extraordinary, albeit mediated, relationship.

|date= 6 February 2011

|url= https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/feb/06/internet-porn-sex-lives

|access-date= 2011-02-08

}} Indeed, teledildonics technology has already been integrated with adult online webcam services and certain sex toys,{{cite web|title=Teledildonics and Live Webcams|url=http://www.webcamreports.com/teledildonics.php|publisher=Webcam Reports|access-date=24 May 2014}} such as OhMiBod, Lovense, and We-Vibe.{{cite news |last1=Alptraum |first1=Lux |title=Cam Girls Are Charging Clients to Control Their Vibrators Over the Internet |url=https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ae35be/cam-girls-are-hacking-teledildonics-to-make-virtual-sex-feel-real |access-date=4 February 2019 |work=Motherboard |date=8 October 2015}}{{cite magazine |last1=Wakeman |first1=Jessica |title=Virtual Brothels: How Teledildonics Is Revolutionizing Sex Work |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/virtual-brothels-how-teledildonics-is-revolutionizing-sex-work-108209/ |access-date=4 February 2019 |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=16 November 2016}} One Dutch manufacturer, KIIROO, offers a two-way connection between both female and male sex toys.{{Cite web|title=How the Fleshlight Predicted the Future|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/vb5vx8/history-of-the-fleshlight-future-of-sex|access-date=2020-10-20|website=www.vice.com|date=4 September 2019 |language=en}}

History

The term was coined as early as 1975 by Ted Nelson in his book Computer Lib/Dream Machines. The idea of virtual sex has been prominent in literature, fiction and popular culture, and promoters of these devices have claimed since the 1980s they are the "next big thing" in cybersex technology.Grossman, Anna Jane [http://dir.salon.com/story/mwt/feature/2005/08/29/teledildonics/index.html "Single, white with dildo."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606233335/http://dir.salon.com/story/mwt/feature/2005/08/29/teledildonics/index.html |date=2011-06-06}} Salon, July 23, 2008. Retrieved July 23, 2008 At the time Howard Rhinegold started using this term in 1990s, there were already many enthusiasts seeking to explore the power of technology, sex and intimacy. A report in the Chicago Tribune in 1993 suggested that teledildonics was "the virtual-reality technology that may one day allow people wearing special bodysuits, headgear and gloves to engage in tactile sexual relations from separate, remote locations via computers connected to phone lines."{{cite news |author=David Rothschild |title=High-tech Sex |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=September 28, 1993 |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1993/09/28/high-tech-sex/ |access-date=2011-02-08}} It was the same year that the Cyber-SM suit was released by Stahl Stensile, which featured on the cover of FutureSex, a 1990s San Francisco–based magazine that focused on the emergence of teledildonics.{{Cite web|date=2018-03-26|title=See Visions of Cybersex Suits and Teledildonics from the 1990s|url=https://futureofsex.net/remote-sex/see-visions-cybersex-suits-teledildonics-1990s/|access-date=2020-10-20|website=Future of Sex|language=en-US}} Some products have been shown at the Museum of Sex in New York City{{cite magazine|date=2011-02-08|title=For Pleasure|url=http://www.slate.com/id/2121835/slideshow/2121919/fs/0//entry/2121918/|magazine=Slate Magazine|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110211231556/http://www.slate.com/id/2121835/slideshow/2121919/fs/0/entry/2121918/|archive-date=February 11, 2011|access-date=2011-02-08|quote=At a small and private teledildonics demonstration on June 1, 2005, sex writer Violet Blue, while in San Francisco, induced two orgasms in her partner, who was riding a custom-made mega-vibrator known as a Thrillhammer at the Museum of Sex in New York City. The event included a few technical hitches: At one point the woman (shown here at a different demonstration) knocked an electrical cord out of the socket. It seems that teledildonics—remote-control vibrator sex via computer—has a long way to go.|url-status=dead}} and there was an exhibition about Stensile's Cyber-SM suit in 2016.

The responses to teledildonics have been mixed; however, the dominant concern has centered on the separation of personal intimacy and embodied presence. In the words of one early text on the subject:{{Cite journal |year=1992 |last1=Carkeek |first1=Freya |last2=James |first2=Paul |author-link2=Paul James (academic) |title=This Abstract Body: The Self, the Body and Identity |url=https://www.academia.edu/33643614 |journal=Arena |issue=99–100 |pages=66–85}}

{{bquote|Indeed, pushing at the cultural-technical limits of the integrity-fragmentation contradiction can, in the short term, supercharge the disembodied body with 'sensual', transgressive ambiguity. For example, 'teledildonics', computer-simulated; sexual arousal by wearing plugged-in bodysuits, may never become widely practised, but it certainly provokes interest as a risque possibility ... [T]echno-sex contributes to hollowing out the corporeal taken-for-grantedness of which, paradoxically, it depends.}}

Patent issues

Many companies experimenting in the field have been hit with patent lawsuits.{{cite news

|author= Mike Masnick

|title=Kickstarter Refuses To Settle Or Be Silenced Over Ridiculous 'Teledildonics' Patent Lawsuit

|publisher= Techdirt

|date= 2015-10-08

|url= https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20151007/11394132469/kickstarter-refuses-to-settle-be-silenced-over-ridiculous-teledildonics-patent-lawsuit.shtml

| access-date= 2016-08-15}}

{{Cite web|title=Expiration of Major Cybersex Patent Could Set Off Explosive Innovation|url=https://fortune.com/2018/08/18/cybersex-patent-expiration-teledildonics/|access-date=2020-10-20|website=Fortune|language=en}} In particular, U.S. Patent No. 6,368,268 titled "Method and device for interactive virtual control of sexual aids using digital computer networks"{{Cite patent|number=US6368268B1|title=Method and device for interactive virtual control of sexual aids using digital computer networks|gdate=2002-04-09|invent1=Sandvick|invent2=Hughes|invent3=Atkinson|inventor1-first=Warren J.|inventor2-first=Jim W.|inventor3-first=David Alan|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US6368268B1/en}} effectively claimed priority over the entire field of controlling sex toys via the Internet.{{Cite web |last=Newitz |first=Annalee |date=2015-07-23 |title=Sorry You Can't Have Any More Sex Toys Because of This Patent |url=https://gizmodo.com/sorry-you-cant-have-any-more-sex-toys-because-of-this-p-1719816692 |access-date=2025-02-14 |website=Gizmodo |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Cole |first=Samantha |date=2018-08-17 |title=The 20-Year Patent on Teledildonics Has Expired |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/teledildonics-patent-has-expired/ |access-date=2025-02-14 |website=VICE |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2018-08-17 |title=The “Sextech” Patent Has Finally Expired |url=https://coolhunting.com/tech/sextech-patent-expiration/ |access-date=2025-02-14 |website=COOL HUNTING® |language=en-US}}{{cite web |date=30 July 2015 |title=Stupid Patent of the Month: Trolls Go After Sex Toy Manufacturers |url=https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/07/stupid-patent-month-do-it-computer |access-date=22 August 2017 |publisher=Electronic Frontier Foundation}}

At the 2016 South by Southwest Festival, virtual reality entrepreneur Ela Darling asserted that patent holders were preventing the production of teledildonic technology.

The patent expired in August 2018, lowering the barrier of entry to the field.{{Cite news|url=https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ne55x8/teledildonics-patent-has-expired|title=The 20-Year Patent on Teledildonics Has Expired|date=2018-08-17|work=Motherboard|access-date=2018-08-19|language=en-us}}{{Cite web |last=Farivar |first=Cyrus |date=2018-08-18 |title=Cybersex toy industry heats up as infamous “teledildonics” patent climaxes |url=https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/08/cybersex-toy-industry-heats-up-as-infamous-teledildonics-patent-climaxes/ |access-date=2025-02-14 |website=Ars Technica |language=en-US}}

References

{{Reflist|refs=

{{cite news

| url = https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/mar/18/virtual-reality-porn-sex-sxsw-panel

| title = SXSW panel explores virtual reality porn: 'more eye contact and dirty talk'

| work = The Guardian

| author = Alex Needham

| date = 2016-03-18

| location = Austin, Texas

| language = en-GB

| access-date = 2017-10-29

| quote = Eventually, some suggest, “teledildonic” technology will enable them to feel sex as well as see it, though a strict patent, according to delegate Ela Darling, has prevented technological developments in this area.

}}

External links

[https://www.wired.com/2003/07/reaching-through-the-net-to-touch/ Wired News: Reaching Through the Net to Touch]
[https://www.wired.com/2004/09/ins-and-outs-of-teledildonics/ Wired News: Ins and Outs of Teledildonics]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20200616140354/http://www.thevirtualsexreview.com/interactive-sex-toys Reviews for several interactive sex toys from The Virtual Sex Review]

Category:American inventions

Category:Vibrators

Category:Machine sex

Teledildonics

Background

History

Patent issues

See also

References

Further reading

External links