I never really wanted to get to the point on this site where I just reposted a bunch of links. However, I now find myself in the situation where I have a bunch of links, most of which are gleened from watching the word 'teledildonics' on twitter, and none of which I feel like writing a full post about. So, here we are.

Emotion Jackets

Yup, it's that time again. Asian universities were making hug jackets years ago, and now it's starting to show up again.

The Philips Emotion Jacket, from the team that brought you the now spun off amBX system (and remember, there's always libambx for your cross-platform, use it because it validates my hobbies needs!) has now made a haptic jacket so you can feel punches.

Nothing new, but the amount of actuators is far more than the Third Space Vest that I've talked about before but can't seem to find the posts on. So, if you're into getting punched, you're about to get more choice in the technology you use to simulate that punch over long distances.

But of course, not everyone is into getting punched. For these people, who I will from this point forward refer to as 'wusses', there's yet another hug jacket because the idea hasn't been done to death yet, really. Except this one works in second life, and gives you more than just hugs. Presented at the Augmented Human International Conference last month (why was I not at this?), the iFeel_IM! jacket allows you to apply pressure to it, which then relays itself via the network (in this specific instance, Second Life) to another person. Now, I've seen this versions of this done for chickens, by student groups and artists, etc... for years now, but it always seems to come back around and get some fanfare, and a couple of new features. For instance, this one generates heat, and can apparently also simulate "tingling" feelings. I'm not sure I agree with the idea of needing an external warmth generator to feel glad to see someone via an online communications context, as if you know the person or at least persona is there, you're gonna get that anyways, no extra technology required. It's why people can still fap to text sex just fine.

And therefore, the surprising quote from the article...

"While he could have added a mechanism for sexual arousal, Tsetserukou decided doing so would ultimately distract from his focus on emotion boosting."

Well, less competition for me, I guess.

For more on emotional clothing, I once again highly recommend the Talk2MyShirt blog

Scary Sex Toy Fridays

Image pretty much says it all, there. Scary Sex Toy Friday is a fun sex toy review blog that just has scary shit on it. Not usually all that technology related, but there's a certain art to making things you put in yourself, and a lot of times, it's a damn hilarious art.

Sex Toy Design

Good Magazine has an interesting article on sex toy design. It's the usual American "Let's Dance around JimmyJane as the one saving grace of sex toy design" when companies like Tenga in Japan have been working on interesting designs for years too, but hey, this is a links post, so I'm trying to be subjective.

Stupidity

Ever wondered what the Teledildonics article on wikipedia sounds like when read out loud?

Well, now you can find out.

I really need to learn to say "Teledildonics" the way the reader does.

There's a certain set of us out there that sort of have, um, problems when we get new things. We like to open them. Not just the box, but whatever's in the box, and whatever's in that. Unboxings and uncasings are nothing new these days. Sometimes you just want to take things apart and see what makes them tick.

And sometimes, it's a box with a $7000 sex doll.

And, sometimes, you just take something, something that was already fun, and you make it even more fun. Like scalping your real doll and putting in an Interactive Fleshlight.

And then you take the after care pictures.

I love running this site.

Thanks to deusbot for sending in the modification photos and making my god damn year.

Prefacing this with credit, I found this thanks to a post by Cory Silverberg, and you should totally visit the store he helps run, Come As You Are, because it's awesome.

I usually concentrate on technological advancements in porn here, but this book caught my eye due to the interesting questions of sensation and perception.

Normally, when people think of porn, it's audio or visual stimulus. Magazines, movies, et cetera. When we talk about haptics in relation to teledildonics and sex technology, it's usually accompanying game, webcam, or movie synchronized toys. These technologies combine haptics with the aforementioned delivery methods, to augment them instead of standing on their own.

So what's the stand alone haptic equivilent of Playboy/Playgirl? That's what Tactile Mind, a book of erotic textures, seems to be trying to find out. Basically, it's images that've been texturized so that they can be felt instead of seen.

Above: Sample image, "Naked Woman with Birthday Streamers"

I've always been interested in pure haptic representations of scenes like this. If you close your eyes and just feel something, what do you expect out of it? The questions of texture, temperature, size, and other qualities are just huge and unanswered. There's relatively little we achieve with haptic stimulation through technological means right now (we've been happy with vibrational force feedback for 20+ years now, after all, and we're just getting to multitouch...), most of which are geared toward controls. There's been lots of talk about things like mood sensing braclets and hug jackets, both then and now (Side note: Talk To My Shirt is a great place for news on stuff like that), but those involving clothing, other people, other senses, and technology. I'm rather fascinated by the naturalness of this, and how effective it is versus whatever other nerdy means we might come up with.

The book itself is a bit more expensive ($225CDN for 17 pages) than your run of the mill porn mag, but that's to be expected for the hand-crafting time that goes into thermoform book publishing, I'm sure. You can also order single plates from the website for $25CDN.

Sure. It's been months since I've posted anything anywhere near relevant to the topic of the blog. It's been a slow newsyear (Rubbot died, RealTouch doesn't suck, sex doll robot thing at AVN was fucking stupid, the end). But today, well, today just begged for a post. There's just too much nerd goodness here to not pass on.

First off, it's been announced that the MMORPG Runes of Magic will contain same sex marriages. Pretty cool, forward thinking stuff, I guess, except that the idea was around in door games and text worlds fucking forever ago and do you have any IDEA of the shit you can marry in Second Life (and by marry I mean marry as well as, you know, "marry") but whatever let's just act like computers didn't exist before World of Warcraft. Anyways, the cool part is that it brought up this article:

Managing Same Sex Relationships in Relational Databases

Yes, it's a multi-page, 14-part article on managing database schema normalization for same-sex relationships. I wonder if E.F. Codd had this in mind for revision 3 of his rules.

And, while we're on the topic of nerdy sex things, I present you with:

The Most Awkwardly Named Function in Matlab

Any time you have to spoogemop another engineer's Matlab code, now you know which function to use.

And in case you aren't aware, via the qDot dictionary:

• spoogemop - verb - To clean up the code of another engineer who has decided that their programming style should resemble violent, messy masturbation, using the language as their own personal fucktoy, and that it is a far better strategy than actual design.
• spoogemopper - noun - The engineer that must engage in the act of spoogemopping. It is customary to buy this person beer, or else have high turnover in your software team.

Anyways, this matlab thing and other silly function names have spawned some awesome reddit threads:

• The Most Awkwardly Named Function in Matlab
• someone HAD to have thought maybe "AssTuple" and "AssList" were bad names

Chock full of stupid sex variable name humor.

So yeah, that's it. I may actually post something on topic this week, but for now, just enjoy the silly.

MMO announcement and Database article via IGDA Sex in Games Mailing List, Matlab funny via mathfail.com

Arse Elektronika - Technosexual Bodies - Hong Kong, China, April 1-27

It's time for Arse Elektronika on the other side of the planet! Technosexual Bodies is an exhibition taking place in Hong Kong, with different events happening April 1-27. Unfortunately I can't be there, but you can go visit the original SexBox!

Techno(sexual) Bodies: Arse Elektronika X Videotage / Artist Talk @ Dorkbot-HK

Speakers: Johannes Grenzfurthner (founder of monochrom and Arse Elektronika) Heather Kelley (media artist and video game designer) Karen Marcelo (founder of dorkbot-sf) Bonni Rambatan (media theorist).

Date: April 1, 2010 (Thu)

Time: 6pm-7pm

Venue: Osage Soho

Address: G/F, 45 Caine Road, Central, Hong Kong.

Techno(sexual) Bodies / Arse Elektronika X Videotage / Exhibition

Co-curated by Johannes Grenzfurthner (Austria) and Isaac Leung (HK)

From the simple electronic vibrator to the complex assemblages of cybersex, sex and technology have always intersected. The dynamic relations between sexuality and technology are constantly changing along with the ways in which human beings achieve psychological and bodily pleasure through these devices. By inviting artists who're dealing with various issues of technosexual bodies, we aim not only to examine the unexplored technicalities, functionalities and interfaces of the new technologies and sexualities, but also to formulate a broader understanding of the meanings of the "technosexual".

Participating Artists: Timothy Archibald (USA) Shu Lea Cheang (USA/France) Paul Granjon (UK) Katrien Jacobs (Belgium) Heather Kelley (USA/CAN) Kyle Machulis (USA) monochrom (Austria) Ellen Pau (HK) Stephane Perrin (Japan) Rainer Prohaska (Austria) Allen Stein (USA) Morgan Wong (HK)

Opening Reception: April 2, 2010 (Fri), 6pm

Exhibition Period: April 7-27, 2010

Opening Hour: 12pm-7pm (Tue-Sun except public holidays)

Venue: Videotage (Unit 13, Cattle Depot Artist Village, 63 Ma Tau Kok Road, To Kwa Wan, Kowloon, Hong Kong)