Trouble Fitting BDSM into Your Life? Try Augmented Reality!

App lets you design your kinky play area with ease.

We’ve all been there: scratching our chin and pondering if the sex swing we really, really want is ever going to fit in the playroom.

To be fair, even though the number of people into BDSM sex is remarkably large and growing every day, this may not be something you've personally puzzled over.

If you have, though, then Third Aurora has been working on what could be an ideal solution: a smartphone app using augmented reality to help visualize what BDSM equipment will, or sadly won’t work for your living space.

Seeing a kinky solution

At first glance, there’s nothing immediately kinky about Third Aurora. If anything, the Australia-based company looks like a lot of other augmented or virtual reality startups. Dig a bit deeper, though, and you’ll find something more than likely you won’t find anywhere else.

Called EverySingle Sex Toy, their proof of concept idea aims to give users the ability select from an online catalog of BDSM gear and then, using Third Aurora's augmented reality tech, to visualize its placement in the immediate environment.

Think Ikea’s Place app but with slings, cages, full-head masks, and all kinds of other kinky toys, and you have the idea.

Eager to try, but simply too shy

According to Third Aurora’s press release page about the project, this isn’t just a way for the company to provocatively show off its technology. Rather they seem to really care about people who might want to explore BDSM but, as they say, might be “Eager to try, but simply too shy.”

One of Third Aurora’s co-founders, Dave Chaffey, acknowledges that the app may have generated quite a few giggles at first but he sees positive things for it in the future:

Yes, there’s certainly been a lot of people giving it a go and some office banter about all the bits and pieces you can see. We’re expecting that at the start. But once the initial laughter dies down, watch this become a serious channel for commerce.

He’s certainly not wrong. While it’s pretty common for many BDSM toys and equipment to be purchased sight-unseen, certain things—like swings, cages, and many kinds of more elaborate bondage equipment—are more problematic.

After all, no one wants to find the BDSM furniture of their erotic dreams only to have it arrive to find that, despite their most earnest measurements, it just doesn't fit. Not only is this upsetting but it's more so sending it back—if that's even possible.

Chaffey definitely seems to know not just augmented reality but kink as well, as evidenced by his enthusiasm for the project:

Absolutely no doubt about it, for a certain percentage of the population, this will be a new platform for commerce, particularly when the size of the item and it's exact position matters…. We believe that smartphone augmented reality will play a part in two to four percent of sales, across all industries, within five years. It's currently an untapped field.

Currently, only the early build of the Android version of the app is available to download on the EverySingle Sex Toy press release page—though it also looks like Apple users will be able to try it out sometime soon.

Is augmented reality here yet?

If Chaffey is right, and there seems to be every indication that he is, then augmented reality will soon become a key part of shopping for BDSM or sex tech playthings.

The only real stumbling block is with the technology, which is still a bit rough around the edges: evidenced by anyone who's ever tried to use an augmented reality app. It’s certainly there, just not smooth and seamless as it should be to truly enjoy—especially as a shopping tool.

But with giants like Google and Apple working on the various problems surrounding it, as well through the efforts of companies like Third Aurora, these problems will soon no doubt fall by the wayside.

A powerful tool for sexual exploration

When this happens, augmented reality will really come into its own. We’ve covered the possible impact of augmented reality on human sexuality many times here at Future of Sex but the EverySingle Sex Toy project raises an interesting point about it.

For many, fear of embarrassment is still a major hindrance in their pursuit of sexual satisfaction. We can make sex shops friendly and alluring, sex tech devices non-threatening, and online shopping secure, but buying sexual devices can still be pretty intimidating.

Bring augmented reality into the mix, however, and anyone, anywhere, anytime will have the ability to perfectly visualize a toy, or piece of BDSM gear: sampling every angle of it, seeing it will work or not work and—of course—if it will fit in the bedroom. All in complete privacy.

This vividness could also be a big step in overcoming shame, with people being able to use AR to get used to seeing, in a lifelike 3D representation, what they’re interested in intimately trying out.

Thanks for the support!

Finally, we really must give a leather-clad hat tip to Dave Chaffey and Third Aurora for being refreshingly brave about discussing BDSM and the needs of the community.

Kink may not be, as yet, be mainstream but it’s still important to a great many people, and to see a company acknowledging this with sensitivity and acceptance is exciting—and gives hope that other companies will do the same in the future.

Image sources: Third Aurora, Chris Marchant, istolethetv, Tom