There's a couple of Open Source Teledildonics projects I've been pointed at lately, so I thought I'd pass the information on. Please note that I haven't actually /used/ either of these projects (Sex software? Ew! Grody!), but they might be of interest, since my own implementation of that crazy macro based end user programming language for teledildonics I keep talking about is coming along sometime between never and never.

First off is the OpenVibrations project. This is a teledildonics client written in Java, that has built in chat and controls through USB and parallel ports. More information on features is available at the OpenVibrations entry at OpenDildonics.

Next, there's Traviesadora. It's windows only, and written in... Delphi. No, seriously. The little language that could apparently still can. It keeps popping up in the weirdest places. Anyways, this project is a jabber based chat client with full on encryption for communications and controls! Yay, something I've been asking for forever! It's also got a rather interesting wave formation UI. From what I can tell from googling, it's mostly serial based, and probably aimed at the Nobra's Silicone Dreams line of toys.

And, if you're wondering what I'm up to in the realm of open source... Well, it really doesn't have much to do with sex, these days. My main projects are:

libnifalcon - Library/Applications for the Novint Falcon Haptic Controller libtrancevibe - Library/Applications for the Rez Trancevibrator * liblightstone - Library/Applications for the Lightstone USB Biometric Widget

Out of those, I'm mostly concentrating on libnifalcon. In fact, it's just about all I've been doing in what little spare time I've had over the past two months. If you're interested in the progress on that, watch Nonpolynomial Labs for updates.

In terms of sex stuff... I've got a ton of ideas, some of which I may dump here soon. There seems to be more interest in projects these days, and I've got a few ideas that can be done with commodity hardware that would be quite fun...

Ok, I don't usually just post comics, but this will most definitely become an oft-used phrase on slashdong...

]2

via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

Update: I originally said 3Feel had been released in Korea. However, as someone commented on this post, the only available language is Chinese. I think I said Korea 'cause that's where the article from the 2005 post came from, or something. Anyways, post it updated, origin country could still be wrong 'cause I still can't read Asian languages, but everything else is still relevant. :)

Back in 2005, 3Feel was like Slashdong's own, personal Spore. It had promises of sex, and massively multiplayer gaming, and hardware, all rolled into one big bundle. Then, just as suddenly as it came, it disappeared back across the ocean, never to be seen again. Even so, 3feel was in the top 10 slashdong.org search engine referrer results every day since then.

However, around February 2008, the number of hits I started getting from 3Feel again skyrocketed, mainly driven from the IGDA Sex in Games LOTD. After watching the hits go up and up for 3 months, I decided it's finally time to take a look at what's going on, and low and behold, 3Feel is out!

Here's a couple of painful movies:

Unfortunately, the game seems to only be available in Korea unidentified asian country right now, and requires you to sign up for an account, which requires knowledge of Korean Chinese that I do not have. However, I'm sure there's a few enterprising game bloggers out there that can go get their virtual fuck on and write about it. Please tell me if you do, too, I'd love to see what's going on. There's still quite a bit of talk of the hardware capabilities of the game (i.e. sex toy control/teledildonics), which would be awesome (and the first first-party integrated network controlled use of toys in a game, at least that I'm aware of).

MMOSite has an interview with the CEO of the company that created 3Feel, with a really interesting note about the revenue model...

3 Feel will make money in three ways: subscription fee, item selling and lovemaking fee which will be calculated from the caressing period.

I think I'm gonna start billing for everything by caressing period units.

There's some crazy, crazy shit going down with teledildonics patents right now, and it's bringing out much bigger names than I ever would've thought. For those of you that have been reading Slashdong for a while, you've probably heard me talk about the odd "anonymous texas billionaire" that funded a troll patent on teledildonics. I was never actually sure if this was true, but hey, other bloggers said it, and we never lie, right? Right? Besides, I figured if I fucked up, I'd get one of those nice cease and desist letters that means you're doing something right.

Anyways, I'd always questioned this story in the back of my mind, because it seemed like Immersion, the 800 pound gorilla of all things shakey, should've claimed ownership on this. Immersion, for those of you that aren't familiar, are the world's largest haptics patent holders. Like, 200+ international patents ranging from force feedback to medical systems to haptic web browsing software. It's what they do, and they do it a BUNCH.

The last big news on Immersion was their suit against both Microsoft and Sony for their force feedback features in controllers for their consoles. If you want to read about the nitty gritty, check out the Immersion v. Sony Wikipedia Article. Short version: Immersion made a metric shitton of cash by nutpunching the big boys of the game industry. Like, the 100's of millions flavor of shitton.

Now that Immersion is rollin' phat on vibrating dueces, everyone wants to come looking for a bit of their cash. For instance, Microsoft countersued, which leads to more legal mumbo jumbo that you can google on your own fucking time. However, some other companies more interesting to the topic of this website have shown up too.

TechDirt is now reporting that Internet Services, LLC (ISLLC), is trying to grab part of Immersions take from the haptics lawsuits. How? Well, ISLLC is the legal whip cracker on teledildonics patents! And what is most modern teledildonics if not force feedback applied to specific parts of the body, eh? ISLLC was licensed the patents and given the right to sue teledildonics companies for patent infringement on Immersions behalf, so Immersion didn't have to crawl through the PR cesspool that is teledildonics. (Ed. Note: Really, guys, come on in to the cesspool! The water's fine!)

Now ISLLC is all butthurt (legal term) about not getting cash, since they're basically a shell for Immersion's legal weaponry. But, it doesn't even stop there! All of the craziness and blog posts aren't about the original case, but the fact that ISLLC's hired attourney is now trying to leave the case, and there's yet ANOTHER lawsuit going on over ISLLC trying to keep said attourney on the case, thus getting EVERYONE more press.

Good motherfucking times, people. Honestly, I have no idea what this means for teledildonics, patents, or whatever else. Obviously, there was a rallying cry of "prior art! prior art!" on the teledildonics patents, but if the patents were/are owned by Immersion, then there goes that idea. 'course, this is still applying only to vibrating toys as a form of feedback, too. I don't believe there's any patent on thrusting toys, since it's just a remotely controlled linear actuator. However, I am so not a lawyer (just in case the use of the term "butthurt" made you think otherwise).

Via TechDirt (Aww, and look at the first comment on the post! Thanks guys!) and The Prior Art

More info also at Boing Boing Gadgets

Yay! Another video from the guys over at British Engineering Systems, showing the LCD screen and menu system they've set up for their intelligent vibrator setup. Good work!