The Vibrator Control Protocol

Over on the opendildonics.org wiki, there's been some talk of nailing down a standardized protocol for open source sex toys so we don't have to support a million different communications ideas in software. However, it looks like this has been going on for longer than we've been talking about it. The Vibrator Control Protocol was written as a April Fool's RFC back in 2003, to do just this sort of thing. Wonder if the creator knew there'd be people seriously looking at it some day.

The panel is /already/ available (MP3 link). Wow. Damn. Technology works fast these days.

Thanks to everyone that was on the panel, it was a GREAT experience, I learned a LOT and it was really really fun. I really want to work on combining the ideas of patterns plus biometrics (Corey FTW, like, twice) for a synesthetic experience now.

(listening to the stream now... Good lord I talk fast. That was 37 slides in 10 minutes.)

link via Tiny Nibbles

UPDATE: I totally flaked and uploaded a version without code attribution (massive apology to everyone who (unknowingly) contributed and got left out for a few hours) or compile/use tutorials, and just realized it. I fixed a couple of tiny bugs, but a million huge stupid ones still exist. Anyways, new version is in the link below.

So Scott Beale was all like "New term: "twitterbaiting", trying to get people to come to where you are, often by name dropping" and yoz was all like "@laughingsquid - could be mistaken for Liz's term "twitterbating" (no i) which is similar but... stickier." and then I was all like "twitterbaiting. Hmm. eyes hardware in his backpack and realizes he /does/ have xcode on this machine..." and then Chip Poutine was all like "@qDOT: I'm not even going to say what the obvious name for that is..." and then Spin Martin was like "Hahahahahaha @ 'clitter'" and I was all like "TWITTERDILDONICS: I will hopefully have it done by the parties tonight."_

And 3 hours later, it's done. It's shitty, it's hacky, but it's vibrating in my lap RIGHT FUCKING NOW.

TO CONTROL THROUGHOUT THE EVENING FRIEND TWITTERDILDONICS ACCOUNT: "TD" (I will make posts on this twitter account when it is live)

Right now, it just pulls the last 15 messages from the friends list and runs through them using the follow algorithm:

• Search for TranceVibrator and initialize if found, otherwise exit
• Fetch friends status updates from twitter using CURL
• Parse into NAME: STATUS pairs using XPath

• For each character from a status

  • Take character and add 100
  • Set motor speed to value
  • Sleep for .1 seconds

While this was the shortest path to finish, it's actually very interesting, because word length, placement and choice of characters actually emerge into a sort of cadence (" " sets the motor to near zero).

Source Code Available Here

REQUIRES:

• Trance Vibe
• Twitter Account
• libUSB
• libCURL
• libXML

My test platform is OS X 10.4.

NEEDED FEATURES:

• Someone please fucking rewrite this in python. It'll be like, 4 lines then. I was just too lazy to try and get the swig shit working for libusb
• Some sort of compressed control protocol for actually sending patterns
• Queuing (Right now I just pull the whole list and replay it over and over. Should only play new messages. I might finish this one at a party tonight.)

I'll have this with me at all the parties I go to tonight (EFF, LifeHacker, ?!?), but it does require wireless + my laptop being on to run.

The Drmn' Trance Vibe: NOW ON SALE

This it the first project I've seen go from instructions to sales since I started this site, and it makes me awesomely happy.

If you've always wanted a Rez Trancevibrator, but didn't want to order one off eBay or get your friend in Asia to hunt one down for you, now you can get one of your very own, for $30. Sure, it's not made to fit in your "shirt pocket", but I'm sure you can find other locations for use.

They're also selling circuit board kits for $15, so you can use them in your own projects and enclosures.

So go! Buy! BUY! BUY DAMNIT!

So I just got back from my meeting with Segment, makers of the Girls Rainbow.

I have a demo unit! I'll be bringing it with me to the panel at SXSW, so if you're there you can check it out.

More info on the toy and the meeting as soon as I have time. And stop playing the sample video over and over and over...