RMIT academic Judith Glover discusses the problems facing future sex toy designers.

Over the last decade, sex tech has been on an upswing despite the declining profitability of traditional pornography. The industry has grown larger than ever, with increasing mainstream visibility and experts estimating the global market for sex toys to be worth roughly $15 billion.

But is the sex tech industry prepared to grapple with the changing needs of an evolving market?

While the consumer demand for sex toys is greater than ever, many customers are being left dissatisfied with low-quality materials and uninspired design.

Dr. Judith Glover holds one of the world’s only PhDs in sex toy design, with a doctoral focus on industrial design methods and their relationship to the wider sex toy industry. Over the last several decades she’s noticed some troubling trends emerge.

Problematic trends

One of the biggest issues is the lack of actual designers being involved in the commercial process, along with the industry’s failure to adopt a UCD based approach to products and services.

“At the moment I see the same poorly designed products and services with just more tech bells and whistles. More tech or a more complicated product doesn’t make it better,” Glover said.

“The industry has not addressed the lack of good product design fundamentals, and adding layers of new technology is not going to help what is fundamentally a flawed design process. And when I say design, most companies don’t even follow what could be considered to be a design process.”

“The sex toy industry is barely able to deliver a half-decent safe dildo or vibrator using technology that has been available since the 1970s. And this is simply because most producers don’t have a design process that understands who their customers are and how to get that information and feed it into the process.”

According to Glover, this is an instance of too much innovation. It’s an application in search of a new problem or an untapped market.

Instead, she says, what’s needed is an approach that begins by delineating what the basic problem or desire that needs addressing is.

Breaking the boys’ club mentality

Aside from an approach which favours novelty over ergonomic design, another issue lies in an industry-wide gender imbalance, which has resulted in a glaring blind-spot to its own systemic misogyny. This is leading to an ongoing negative feedback loop, where the same sexist ideas are continually replicated over decades without ever involving women in the design process.

“You have a significant issue that most sex toy production comes out of the Adult Industry, and they have some very outdated, narrow, and in some cases misogynistic views on females. Now, I’m not anti-porn—I don’t believe in censorship—the Adult Industry has the right to make products—and let’s face it nobody else has much wanted to jump into the market.”

“What’s needed is competition, and those small number of design-led companies that have jumped into the market over the last decade have been central to raising the standards of production off a very low base. A little bit of competition goes along way,” she said.

[quote type=”center”]The biggest market opportunities reside in the women’s over 50s market. That’s where all the money is and that’s where the population growth is going. [/quote]

With the Female Economy currently representing the biggest market in the world, and women statistically outspending men, Glover believes that by failing to adapt, the sex tech industry is missing out on a golden opportunity.

“There is a social side to innovation as much as a technological side and they go hand in hand. So are we just perpetuating the same issues that have been going on for decades about men developing their version of technology for women without involving women in the process?”

“I would suggest to any male tech entrepreneur who wants to be successful in this field that you have to involve women designers and techies in the development of your products and services and develop ways of involving your female customers and creating feedback loops,” Glover said.

“It wasn’t and hasn’t been part of their culture to accept those social changes as it goes against one their main paradigms which is that white men dominate everybody else. So there as enormous opportunities in sex toys and sex tech if you understand this market and its segments and stop designing like you are teenage boys and grow up a bit.”

One area of consumers that Glover feels are greatly underserviced is the women over-50 demographic. Despite their growing economic influence, the sex tech industry has still largely continued to maintain an archaic indifference to female customers.

As a result, the current market is flooded with products which are both poorly-made and under-advertised.

“The biggest market opportunities reside in the women’s over 50s market. That’s where all the money is and that’s where the population growth is going,” she said.

“Who is designing specifically for that? Nobody really yet. And if you think your ideal customer is a woman in her 20s who likes to dress like a stripper then you’re probably going to blow your venture capital.”

Designing for the future

With society gradually becoming more comfortable with expressions of sexuality, it seems likely that sex tech will continue to enjoy an increased visibility in the popular culture. Over time, Glover predicts that this will translate into a significant growth for the industry itself; if it can remedy some of its more problematic commercial practices.

“The majority of the population in the West have fairly relaxed attitudes towards sexuality and sexual freedoms. So the opportunities are enormous for products and services. But none of this will become remotely mainstream unless we develop good quality products and services that respect all our types of customers, men and women, of many different age demographics,” she said.

“Unless they want to get more realistic about contemporary women, then the majority of production and development has to move out of the Adult Industry.”

This is the result of a problem which has been identified as one of the most significant issues that tend to plague expanding industries. A low rate of female employees and the lack of diversity in age groups is leading to a noticeable lack of innovation, at all levels of development.

This is precisely because, as Glover argues, the process of innovation has always had a socio-cultural aspect to it.

“Whatever part of the development process you are coming from–designer, engineer, IT, service design, applications, and software—develop a methodology for your company that allows for understanding your customers’ needs and desires and have diverse teams of people.”

“It’s not just about the technology itself. And your customers are not necessarily other young white techie boys,” she said.

As sex tech continues its gradual march towards the mainstream, the sex tech industry will find itself grappling with a need to evolve if it wishes to keep up with a changing market. And although it’s still unclear if developers will be able to address the discriminatory practices which are handicapping innovation, at this point, it seems clear that the future belongs to women.

Image source: Morderska

The post The Future Is Female: Can Women Save the Sex Tech Industry? appeared first on Future of Sex.

RMIT is teaching designers how to build the future of sex tech. 

Historically, personal sex devices have always formed a highly profitable, if rarely talked about, area of the economy. However, over the last few decades this has begun to change, with sex toys moving from a taboo niche into increasing mainstream visibility.

Adult entertainment is also in the midst of record highs, with experts estimating that the global sales of sex toy amounts to approximately $15 billion. But while the industry only continues to grow, the consumer market is still flooded with disappointed complaints about lackluster quality and generic design.

Thankfully in recent years there has been a pushback against complacency, with a growing wave of innovators looking to solve the industry’s creative stagnation. And now an Industrial Design lecturer from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Judith Glover, has launched the world’s first university course focusing exclusively on sex-toy design.

Students in her class each have to undertake an individual project, choosing what area of the subject they want to focus on.

“Their concepts had to be grounded in good research and evidence. So the first few weeks was the group mapping out the area of sexual health and wellbeing,” explained Glover, in an interview with Future of Sex.

“One student did a project about sex toys and older women, which she has carried on into an honours project with me this year.”

“Other types of projects the student have looked into were about Prostitus, Pregnancy and the Perenium, how to help women with sexual trauma enjoy sexual practice again, how to keep a long-term relationship sexually fresh with game playing, Vaginismus and erectile dysfunction,” she said.

Good design, good user experience

Glover believes that her students learn important lessons about the design field from her classes, describing the challenges as some of the most interesting and difficult she’s come across. There are issues that have to be considered from an ergonomic and psychological perspective, which require a User-Centered (UCD) approach, backed up with evidence-based research.

“It makes the students experience how ‘good’ design comes from ‘good’ research and ‘good’ methodology, which is really missing in most commercial sex toys on the market.”

The feedback from students and designers has also been overwhelmingly positive, with Glover describing her students as approaching the subject with a passionate maturity. There are even plans to eventually expand the program to the post-graduate level.

“Even if the student doesn’t want to get involved in that industry these methods are applicable to any other design project. Industrial Design is the discipline of innovation and commercialisation, so we want to teach our students to identify both new areas and problems that haven’t been tackled yet, and then how to do a project in an area without lots of precedents.”

“I think a lot of other students were a bit scared to join the studio but once they heard how much fun we were having and how interesting the topics were I got lots of interest in running it again,” she said.

“We also had some press about it and the article seemed to go far and wide and I’ve have lots of designers and other people contacting me wanting to do the course.”

Image source: Christina Xu

The post Melbourne University Launches World’s First Sex-Toy Design Course appeared first on Future of Sex.

Sexbots could help patients in need, says medical ethics expert. 

While technophobia has existed since the Industrial Revolution, during 2015 it showed a surprising resurgence.

Earlier this year, the Second International Congress on Love and Sex with Robots was shut down after pressure from Malaysian authorities. In September, two European academics also launched a public campaign seeking to ban sex robots.

But some people are pushing back against this new wave of robotic paranoia, such as Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist from the Division of Medical Ethics at the New York University Langone Medical Center.

In a video and accompanying article published late last year on Medscape, Caplan argued that while it may be possible for sex robots to exert a negative influence on society, their impact will likely be negligible. They may even offer potential benefits for users.

Such positive possibilities include sexual surrogacy or use as a social aid for the chronically shy and introverted.

With these in mind, Caplan is advocating a more open-minded approach to robotic personal sex devices. Aimed at doctors and the billion-dollar healthcare industry, he argues that from a medical perspective there is nothing wrong with using sexbots to treat patients.

Caplan even posits that robot sex could promote improved outcomes for prisoners, offering them an outlet where no other is available. He also dismisses arguments about the theoretical morality of commercialized sexbots as unpersuasive, drawing comparisons between the technology and our current automated lifestyles.

“Robots are flying us in the air, driving us down the highway, and showing us pornography on our computer terminals (not mine, but I hear that’s going on). We don’t think, my gosh! We violated our dignity and human rights because we’re using machines to take over tasks that might have been done by other humans,” he said.

And while Caplan acknowledges that substituting real-life romantic relationships for sex robots may lead to feelings of isolation and loneliness, he views this as a separate argument to the debate over the implicit morality of this technology.

“I think that over the years, we’ve seen that people adapt to technology and the technology can adapt to them. It may even be helpful for people who are shy, or trying to learn what to do, to have some kind of an automated friend help them.”

“I can see some social good coming from robot sex. At the end of the day, even though it may sound strange, even though it may sound a bit—if you will—dehumanizing, I think this is a technology that has a good application,” Caplan said.

Do you think sex robots could be used for medical treatment?

Image Source: Dick Thomas Johnson

The post The Machines Are Alright: NYU Bioethicist Defends Therapeutic Use of Sex Robots appeared first on Future of Sex.

Is Erotic Chatbots Ltd. the risqué future of conversational AI?

As robots become an increasingly common aspect of everyday life, humanity will need to ask itself some difficult questions. Would you be comfortable with a self-driving car? What about receiving medical treatment from robotic nurses?

How would you react if a robot tried to flirt with you?

That’s the question that chess champion and acclaimed robotics expert David Levy is trying to answer. Along with his business partner, digital erotica publishing maven Paul Andrew, he’s founded the company Erotic Chatbots Ltd.  Together they’re aiming to develop a commercial chatbot program that is engaging, interesting, and most crucially, amorous.

Speaking to Future of Sex about this exciting new venture, Levy outlined his views on the future of commercial robotics, the implications of virtual romance, and the progress of his groundbreaking AI research.

Programmed for companionship

Beginning with a recent campaign on the Indiegogo crowdfunding platform, Erotic Chatbots Ltd. is looking to bring Levy’s flirtatious chatbot program to the tech-obsessed masses. Building on his previous Loebner-award-winning AI from 2009, the “Do-Much-More,” his new Erotic Chatbot program boasts a range of enhancements that put it far beyond the capabilities of its peers.

Levy claims that the AI currently in use by competing chatbot developers “only scratches the surface of what is possible with our approach.”

“Our software technology works in a completely different way to everything else described in the computational linguistics literature, and it is the originality of our approach which we believe will help to set our upgraded chatbot apart from all others in the market,” he said.

In a statement on the Erotic Chatbots Ltd.’s crowdfunding page, the program is touted as being compatible with most computer or mobile systems, and able to engage in entertaining, interesting, and erotically charged conversations.

But although the lascivious chatbots are designed for adult conversation and feature a “dirty chat” mode, they are also capable of engaging in conversation without any overly salacious content. According to Levy, this non-sexual flirting style may appeal to the chronically shy, or those who are uncomfortable with risqué content.

And Levy is more than confident that a market already exists for his flirtatious AI.

“If you already behave like ‘Pavlov’s Dog’ every time your smart device pings or vibrates, you might already be more than a little bit ‘in love’ with a robot.”

“In the half-light of virtual community, we may feel utterly alone. Taking that intimacy to another level, and ‘making’ or ‘attracting’ an intelligent virtual-lover or partner which understands and wants to please you, is perhaps an appealing proposition to a lot of people,” he said.

Commercial Possibilities

However, Levy also believes that a wide market exists for his chatbot beyond the chronically lonely and socially disenfranchised. One demographic he considers to be a likely user base is the curious: “People who wonder what it would be like to have an erotically charged conversation with a chatbot. Another will be those people who currently pay for sex-line chat.”

But his plans for the software go far beyond flirting, with Levy envisioning a myriad of potential uses for his conversational AI. He described plans for apps and online services, along with a special secret implementation that they’re still developing.

Unfortunately excited chatbot users will still have to wait for the launch of Levy’s new secret development, which is currently scheduled for a mid-2016 release.

“We will be producing versions tailored for different types of situations. One example is corporate web sites—the chatbot will be able to carry on an interesting and entertaining conversation with users about a company and its products—far more than just the typical question-answer,” Levy said.

Part of what makes the AI such a proficient conversationalist is its cutting-edge software, which is designed to retain and catalogue information about the user. Over time, the chatbot is capable of learning all about your various interests, letting it tailor the conversation to your specific tastes.

As an added bonus, Erotic Chatbots Ltd. claims that the more personal characteristics the AI learns about its user, the more endearing the program will find these qualities in the person.

In fact, Levy says that erotic chat and flirting are only part of the program’s function, with the core software displaying communication abilities beyond anything else that’s presently on the market.

Digital relationships: what’s coming next

And Levy isn’t the only developer who’s attempting to harness conversational AI for commercial purposes. Earlier this year, the synthetic sexdoll pioneers at RealDoll announced plans to release Realbotix, a line of responsive sex robots that will offer the illusion of sentience.

RealDoll creator Matt McMullen is already working on a prototype named Harmony, which will feature a convincing AI that’s intended to foster a deep emotional and intellectual connection with users.

Levy is unsurprised by this development, an evolution he’s predicted for the industry since 2007. Describing the move as a natural and expected extension of RealDoll’s previous work on synthetic partners, he believes the new focus on robotics will be a boon to the industry.

“I fully expect that once electronic versions of RealDoll appear on the market they will be widely publicized and that, in turn, will cause the market for such products to expand and other companies to come into the business,” Levy said.

The growing publicity surrounding sex robots may also serve another purpose, as the greater focus could aid in destigmatizing the perception of users. While sex toys have been gradually moving towards mainstream acceptance in recent years, the general public is still prone to sneering at enthusiasts as deviant or dysfunctional.

According to Levy, this attitude continues to hold back development, while also prompting prospective users to be ashamed of their desires.

“I believe that many people who are customers or potential customers of such products are too embarrassed to admit it. But as RealDoll and other products start to become more mainstream, I believe that society’s attitudes will change.”

“There is a whole section of my book on the way in which sexual mores and attitudes have changed over the past half century or so, and I think that more changes will come at an even faster rate in the future,” he said.

The ethics of virtual romance

Levy was also unconcerned by the recent campaign surround the ethical implications of using sex robots. Although he’s perfectly happy for ethicists and philosophers to endlessly debate the subject, he considers questions of morality to be of secondary importance to the real world progress being made by robotics and AI researchers. Abstract issues surrounding ethics are of little value compared to what he sees a product with enormous popular appeal.

But while these concerns may be worth considering in an academic sense, Levy is dismissive of their importance to the industry as a whole, with their application largely being limited to the theoretical.

“In theory, yes. But in the real world, no. What I mean by this is that, in the real world, no matter to what extent there is a belief or even laws to prevent certain uses of robots, those who are interested in robotics and AI development will continue to research and develop, and will produce robots and artificial intelligences which others will find abhorrent. For example, there is no point, in my opinion, in people arguing against the use of robots in warfare. If your country is attacked by an enemy who wants to wipe you and all of your compatriots off the face of the earth, which would you prefer to do – succumb to that enemy or do everything within your power to defeat it?”

While many are still squeamish about the possibility of robotic relationships, Levy may be correct that sex robots are an inevitable development. Although chatbot’s are only a small step in this direction, they’re paving the way for people to develop real and meaningful relationships with digital entities. We may be heading towards a future where Siri won’t just recommend a restaurant, she’ll also be your dinner partner.

Would you flirt with an erotic chatbot program?

Image source: Erotic Chatbots Ltd

The post Machine Flirting: Roboticist David Levy Discusses AI, Sex Tech and Adult Chatbots appeared first on Future of Sex.

Two academics argue they will promote the objectification of women and children.

Humanity’s relationship with technology has always been complicated. We worship at the altar of automated convenience, but fear the speed with which it remakes society. Robots are perhaps the ultimate expression of this duality, inspiring utopian dreams and apocalyptic nightmares in equal measure.

But have we stopped to consider the ethical implications of such technology?

Now two European academics are attempting to provide an answer, with a public campaign seeking to ban the production of sex robots.

Founded by robotics ethicists Dr. Kathleen Richardson and Erik Billing, the Campaign Against Sex Robots argues that such machines will exert a profoundly negative influence on society.

Although the movement stops short of advocating the extension of human rights to robots, it asserts that development of sexbots will only reinforce pre-existing inequalities. The group’s website details a laundry-list of damaging effects, such as encouraging the degradation of women and children, and even inadvertently promoting human trafficking.

Rather than develop sex robots, Richardson instead suggests that researchers should pursue, “ethical technologies that reflect human principles of dignity, mutuality and freedom.”

Comparing the dynamic to the prostitute-client relationship, the campaign suggests that such devices will also erode the empathy of their users over time.

According to Richardson’s paper “The Asymmetrical ‘Relationship’: Parallels Between Prostitution and the Development of Sex Robots,” the prostitution model automatically privileges the buyer’s perspective. This has the unintended side effect of diminishing the seller’s subjectivity, reducing them to the status of objects, and reinforcing “relations of power that do not recognize both parties as human subjects”.

Pathologizing desire

However, while Richardson’s campaign raises many important questions about the ethics of the nascent sexbot industry, there are serious flaws to be considered in her prohibition-based approach.

Although Richardson’s warning about introducing pre-existing inequalities is worth heeding, moralistic censorship carries its own dangers. The politics of sexual respectability have historically been a damaging force, stigmatizing any desires that exist beyond an imagined mainstream.

French academics Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari wrote about this as early as 1972 in their philosophical text “Anti-Oedipus,” the first volume of the groundbreaking theoretical work “Capitalism and Schizophrenia”.

They critique the tendency of traditional psychoanalysis to privilege the nuclear family as the primary social model. By promoting the ideal of a perfect family unit, people are taught to be ashamed of their private desires, to pathologize, deny, and repress all atypical urges and unconventional fantasies. Submitting to your predilections is seen as an act of perversion while suppressing these desires is considered natural.

Deleuze and Guattari attribute this to the Freudian figure of Oedipus, which oversimplifies the complexities of desire, and marginalizes those outside the theoretical mainstream:

“…if desire is repressed, it is because every position of desire…is capable of calling into question the established order of society… It is therefore of vital importance for a society to repress desire, and even to find something more efficient than repression, so that repression, hierarchy, exploitation, and servitude are themselves desired.”

And while Richardson’s campaign may intend to merely prevent the sexualization of robots, it also politicizes them, drawing in a broader gender discourse which may be limiting in its scope.

Richardson’s definition of sex robots as “machines in the form of women or children for use as sex objects” is highly restrictive, ignoring what will likely be the post-gendered nature of artificial sexuality.

Feminist academic Donna Haraway has previously outlined the ways that digital identity will disrupt the sex-gender binary in her influential work “A Cyborg Manifesto.”

“There is not even such a state as ‘being’ female, itself a highly complex category constructed in contested sexual scientific discourses and other social practices,” she said. “Gender, race, or class consciousness is an achievement forced on us by the…patriarchy, colonialism, and capitalism.”

Sex robots may also have applications that extend beyond the realm of consumer gratification, with potential for a variety of therapeutic purposes. Like the growing number of hands-free personal sex devices, these robots could prove ideal for aiding those with mobility problems to lead more fulfilling sex lives.

The sex robots are coming

Aside from the inherent difficulty in suppressing technology, Richardson’s crusade focuses too much attention in the wrong direction. Like previous campaigns aimed at banning pornography, it approaches the equation in reverse, blaming the product instead of the environment that created it.

Robot enthusiasts have also been echoing this sentiment on social media, taking to Twitter to express a variety of concerns about the nature of Richardson’s critique:

Seems a bit premature. https://t.co/xS7mymuV7C

— Quin (@ThatMissQuin) September 17, 2015

@FutureofSex Our interconnection with technology is making us smarter but will it change our ethics, will it cause moral relativity? – No

— Dr Michelle Mars (@DrMichelleMars) September 17, 2015

@FutureofSex Dr Richardson, and those who run that campaign, have a very puritanical viewpoint. General society may not understand…

— Ｄａｖｅｃａｔ (@Davecat) September 17, 2015

@FutureofSex …and manufacturers should do what they can to educate people, in order to dispel fallacies about Synthetiks.

— Ｄａｖｅｃａｔ (@Davecat) September 17, 2015

@FutureofSex I think a ban doesn’t make sense at this stage, not for the reasons mentioned. Maybe when we get into issues of AI & free will. — Bas Grasmayer (@basgras) September 16, 2015

@FutureofSex It is an issue of informed consent, and that comes down to who owns the robots http://t.co/VbMrpOCw5j

— BrianSJ (@BrianSJ3) September 17, 2015

And let’s not forget that this is only one side of the story, with roboticists already working toward engineering love between humans and machines. For instance, the Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Technology Laboratory at the National Taipei University in Taiwan has been developing a field of study known as Lovotics.

Head researcher Dr. Hooman Samani’s work involves a complex AI that simulates the endocrine system, allowing his robots to mimic both the psychological and physical symptoms of being in love. This emotional element demonstrates that at least some researchers are interested in developing machines that go beyond mere sexual gratification. In the future such devices may even be capable of falling in love.

However, while Richardson’s campaign is somewhat short-sighted, it is part of a growing movement that is attempting to examine the way we interact with robots.

In 2012, the academic Sinziana Gutiu wrote a similar study entitled “Sex Robots and Roboticization of Consent” for We Robot, an annual conference on legal issues relating to robotics. And earlier this year, the Tokyo-based telecommunications group Softbank released a humanoid robot named Pepper, which features instructions explicitly forbidding its usage for “sexual acts” or “obscene behavior.”

Although the Campaign Against Sex Robots is still receiving plenty of press, it seems likely that Richardson’s attempt at censorship will eventually end in failure, regardless of the validity of her arguments. Consumer demand will eventually ensure that sexbots are a commercial inevitability.

All that matters now is how we choose to respond to them.

Do you think that sex robots will contribute to real-world objectification?

Image sources: epSos.de, Jiuguang Wang

The post The Campaign Against Sex Robots: Is Banning Them the Answer? appeared first on Future of Sex.

Say hello to contraception in a can.

Society is always looking for new ways to promote safe sex. Philanthropists are even in on the game, with organisations like The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation donating millions of dollars to the development of the “next generation of condom.”

However, the next step in contraception may just be a new spray-on condom currently being developed by design student Michele Chu.

Initially created while studying at the Pratt Institute’s Munson Williams Proctor College of Art and Design in New York, the spray is said to provide protection for both genders. In a positioning statement on Packaging of the World, Chu described the product as being for “bold and daring women,” and perfectly suited to today’s fast-paced environment.

Dubbed Girlplay, the aerosol-based technology works by creating a contraceptive seal around the penis via a spray-on liquid latex. This aspect will supposedly eliminate the need for different condom sizes. Chu added that this element of their design is similar to spray-on bandages.

The designer has also created a Lover’s Kit, which comes with a spray-on condom for men and women, along with a variety of conventional condoms and a remote-controlled smart bra.
According to Chu, the kit’s remote control will be capable of controlling the condom’s modes, effects, and flavors, as well as being able to remotely unhook the smart bra.

During an interview with PSFK, she also said that the condom market could use a revamp.
“Condoms look like those little ramen seasoning packets. They’ve just been these square things forever,” Chu said.

Unfortunately, while the technology may sound exciting, the condoms are not ready for consumer release. However, Chu has plans to continue developing the product after graduation, with the end goal of starting her own company.

Contraception in the near future

While Chu’s concept may sound futuristic, this isn’t the first time someone’s attempted to create spray-on contraceptives.

In 2007, German entrepreneur and sex educator Jan Vinzenz Krause tried to bring a spray-on condom to the market called the “Jolly Joe.” However, despite his best efforts, the pursuit proved unsuccessful. Trial users complained about the aerosol cans’ loud hissing sound during application, along with the more problematic three-minute waiting period for the latex to dry.

Beijing-based company Blue Cross Bio-Medical has also developed a female spray-on foam condom made from “silver nanotech particles.” Making use of a polyvinyl alcohol resin, the foam forms a physical membrane that protects against pregnancy and infection.

Although at this point it’s unclear if Chu’s concept will be successful, it seems clear that designers are still passionate about encouraging safer sex. And Girlplay’s media attention suggests that consumers are always looking for new alternatives to traditional contraception.

Would you try a spray-on condom?

Image source: Michele Chu – Packaging of the World

The post Girlplay Shakes Up Safe Sex with Spray-On Condom appeared first on Future of Sex.