New ways to safeguard tomorrow’s tech, privacy, and sexual romps.

It happened. Hackers have uncovered infidelity dating website Ashley Madison’s 33 million members, their identities, addresses, and fantasies.

As our sex lives become increasingly technological, could our sex tech devices and software also be hacked? How are developers keeping us safe?

Marketing site The Drum explored these questions recently in its documentary The Big Turn On. The filmmakers spoke to sex tech companies and experts about maintaining privacy in our current digital age.

Keeping your teledildonics safe

Internet-connected sex toys are becoming increasingly popular.

To keep devices protected, Kiiroo has invented its own simple line of defense for users of its interactive smart vibrator the Pearl and male sex sleeve the Onyx. According to the Kiiroo website, video chats between its teledildonics users will occur in its own Skype-like program.

For security, users receive a six-digit code that they must use to enter a chat room. After five minutes, the code becomes invalid so that uninvited users and hijackers who happen upon the digits can’t enter.

Avoiding hackers and predators

In any online venture, hacking is common. Online psychology specialist Nathalie Nahai said in the documentary  that when going online for sex, people must protect themselves on two fronts.  They need to ensure their safety in the hands of their online sexual partner, and that chat services are as difficult to hack as possible.

Nahai suggests that adult chat users ask two questions:

• How much do you trust the other person or people?
• How much do you trust the technology you’re using?

Laws are also coming into effect to safeguard people’s sexuality in the online realm. Journalist Alix Fox predicts that more laws will change to protect sex tech users and their intimate details.

“It’s a fascinating subject, but also one which, with regards to legislation, is going to be very interesting to observe,” she said in the documentary.

How cybersecurity is changing today

We’re seeing complex algorithms lock hackers out of live chats in the form of Kiiroo’s cybersecurity. This safeguards users from having their intimate moments invaded, as well as falling victim to identity theft and malware attacks.

Also, we’re watching the law move toward protecting people’s privacy in their online sex lives by cracking down on photos and videos of former sexual partners.

For example, some U.S. states and the Australian state of Victoria have outlawed posting sexual images without permission from the person shown. The Philippines introduced a similar law in 2009, adding that pictures taken with the person’s permission are still illegal if the nude person hasn’t approved it being shared online.

The future’s simplest line of defense seems to be thinking for ourselves and only indulging in situations that we trust.

How safe do you think online sex will be in the future? What’s still vulnerable? Leave a comment.

Image source: geralt

The post Cybersecurity: How to Protect Your Online Sex Life from Hackers and Predators appeared first on Future of Sex.

A new documentary explores the art and business of sex tech in coming years.

The Big Turn On [NSFW] was released at the Cannes Lions Festival by American marketing site The Drum in June.

In the documentary, The Drum speaks to several sex tech companies, entrepreneurs, and journalists, about where human sexuality and its products are headed. It also covers the need to break down taboos about connecting technology with sex.

[NOTE: Video NSFW]

The Big Turn On has several forecasts for the coming years:

• VR technology will make adult entertainment far more immersive. A user can be part of sex scenes, both in the real world and invented fantasy realms. According to director Sam Scott, VR’s realism and illusion of intimacy will earn it many fans in the near future.
• Sex robots will soon have more realistic bodies and movements, plus artificial intelligence. An intelligent sex robot can form a relationship with users.
• “We want to normalize cyber sex,” said a spokesperson for Dutch teledildonics company Kiiroo, which uses moving rings in their products to create a highly realistic long-distance sexual experience. Kiiroo intends to work with webcam and online chat services to help connect sexual partners.
• Online dating apps are causing sociological changes. Hook-up culture will become more casual and the stigma will decrease. Apps like Tinder are already making the sex lives of its users into regular dinner conversation.
• We’re about to see education and knowledge transform how people have sex. Big data is already storing details about online service users and their sex lives, and this will continue. Today, sex app Spreadsheetsrecords the user’s sex habits to give them detailed information about their sex life, such as time spent engaged in sex and highest decibels reached for cries of passion. As well as allegedly telling you how good you are in bed, Spreadsheets rates users by country and provides details of others’ sex lives.

The Director’s Take

The Drum director Sam Scott also shared his views on what’s in store for our sexual futures.

He told Future of Sex that adult entertainment is one of the most fitting uses for virtual reality. This is because VR requires “blinding yourself to the physical world,” making erotic content more enjoyable in this platform than in two-dimensional TV or video games.  VR will make current adult entertainment seem as dull as older versions of erotic video seem now.

Scott especially has confidence in apps. In his words:

“I think the whole sex tech industry will grow steadily over the [next] five/ten years. Maybe the biggest boost will come from platforms like Tinder… There are ads on Tinder now, and I think we’ll see these dating/hookup platforms step into the business limelight over the next 5 years,” he said.

However, there’s one great barrier to sex tech moving forward. Paypal, Amazon, and mainstream credit card processors often refuse to work with sexual technology.

Sex tech entrepreneur Cindy Gallop said in the documentary that “No adult content” clauses will continue to hold back sexual inventions until the business world becomes more bold.

“The future of sex tech will not happen unless me and other entrepreneurs make it happen,” Gallop said.

In all, The Drum has shown that few obstacles remain between the steady progression of sex tech and its users. Media personalities and tech workers are pushing to normalize the recession-proof sexual entertainment industry. Meanwhile, the AI of sex robots and quality of adult VR will become top of the line.

What do you predict for the future of sex? Comment and let us know.

Featured image source: The Drum

The post Experts Share Top Sex Tech Predictions in Documentary ‘The Big Turn On’ appeared first on Future of Sex.

Technology can bring you pleasure on demand—all in your sleep.

For decades, science and business have been working together to help us take hold of our erotic dreams so we can have them at will.

Lucid dreaming is a proven phenomenon in which dreamers realize they’re not awake, and then gain total control while still asleep. In a lucid dream you can fly, go to new places, or fulfill any fantasy. It’s possible to learn lucid dreaming with practice, and both research and devices are available to teach us how.

What’s most exciting is how they can be applied to create vivid sexual dreams of your choosing.

The Science of Sex Dreams

Stephen LaBerge specializes in dream sex and orgasms. He started studying lucid dreams since research in the area began in the ‘80s, and led Stanford University’s groundbreaking work into whether dreams are controllable. He also founded The Lucidity Institute, which researches what humans are capable of while asleep.

In this video, LaBerge explains how people can experience consciousness while in the dream world.

According to LaBerge, we hold the potential to control our dream states for two reasons. First, we can still use our brains while asleep, including our consciousness. The second is that the sleeping mind doesn’t know the difference between fantasy and reality.

During dreams, there are patterns of movement in the central nervous system. Meanwhile, the autonomic nervous system controls your organs, survival instincts, and arousal. Your body reacts to the central nervous system’s patterns much like it would while awake. The neurons that handle consciousness still fire up. This causes us to feel and sense our dreams, and believe they’re real until we rise from slumber.

At the same time, arousal is a common sensation during the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) type of sleep, a stage when the most realistic dreams occur. The genitals will also regularly swell up throughout the night by themselves. If you will yourself into a sexual situation during sleep, the senses will follow with sharp vividness because of those neurons working on your nervous system. Your whole body acts like it’s experiencing sex.

How to Have Lucid Sex Dreams

Most lucidity training and inventions aren’t designed to be sexual. However, people can unlock their sexual potential by focusing their energies on creating erotic dream scenarios.

The following proven techniques can be used to take command of the sleeping state in order to have lucid sex dreams.

• LaBerge’s Mnemonic Induced Lucid Dreaming (MILD) technique. MILD involves constant reality checks. This means checking several times throughout the day whether you’re in a dream until you begin to do it while dreaming.

• Dream supplement pills tend to contain the brain enhancing chemicals galantamine and choline, which make your dreams more vivid and lucid. Vitamin B5 also gives more intense experiences.

• Cheese before bed. Yes, the amino acid in certain kinds of cheese makes dreams more vivid. According to one member of the British Cheese Board, cheddar eaters dream of celebrities.

• The Walking-Induced Lucid Dream (WILD) technique was inspired by Buddhist dream yoga. It’s the most powerful lucidity practice, according several online anecdotes. This is because you can choose when to practice being lucid, plus there’s no unconscious period between sleep and dreaming. Four to six hours after falling asleep an alarm wakes you. You then relax and repeat to yourself, “I’m dreaming.” In this sleep-deprived state, the dream begins before sleep takes hold again. Next, there’s a half-awake period of hallucination. At last, while you remind yourself that you’re dreaming, the lucid dream begins and you can visualize your fantasy.

The Sex Dream Business

Among the many lucidity techniques and gadgets out there, some are specifically designed to create pleasure during sleep. For example, English entrepreneur Tony Maggs has invented a vibrator that helps train its users to have erotic lucid dreams.

The Dream Rooster a small wearable device that goes inside the underwear and vibrates every few hours during sleep. The women’s is a slip of plastic that covers the genitals. The men’s is a ring that fits snugly around both the penis and testicles. If the wearer is in a dream and feels the vibration, according to Maggs, he or she will realize that they’re dreaming.

This product has come on the heels of Little Rooster, an alarm clock similar to the Dream Rooster made by the same company. It wakes up the wearer by gently increasing vibrations.

According to Dream Rooster’s Indiegogo page, users reported having vivid sexual dreams before they woke and that’s where Maggs got the idea for the eponymous device. This phenomenon of having vivid visions while mostly asleep is what the powerful WILD technique uses to create lucidity.

The Little Rooster reportedly received rave reviews from several publications and some impressive words from late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel. Despite the press its successor the Dream Rooster failed to reach its $45,000 goal on Indiegogo when the campaign ended in January. However, it did attract 73 backers that funded 10% of the target in exchange for cut-price Dream Roosters.

While the Dream Rooster didn’t take off, dreaming and sex are popular activities that go well together. It’s natural to wish you could summon dream sex at will. The Dream Rooster’s many backers suggest that there is a market of people waiting for an inexpensive machine to help grant that wish.

If you could take control your dreams what would you do?

Image source: AlexVan

The post How to Control Your Sex Dreams with Science and Sex Tech appeared first on Future of Sex.

Crowdfunding has given the disabled more options—along with everyone else.

When China-based inventor Brian Sloan crowdfunded the Autoblow 2 [NSFW], he just wanted to make the most realistic sex toy a man could have. The Autoblow 2 is a hands-free “stroker,” a device that massages the penis.

It’s an orifice made of artificial skin that moves mechanically by itself. Two rings of soft beads outside the false skin move up and down to simulate oral sex. The first Autoblow had a similar design, but was battery-powered and lower quality. Sloan decided the Autoblow 2 would plug into a wall socket and last for years.

But he needed another $45,000 to launch his product, so last April he went to crowdfunding site Indiegogo.

In two months, $280,000 flooded the page. Sloan began to get grateful emails from Internet users with mobility issues: Iraq War veterans, people with multiple sclerosis, and folks with other disabilities that rule out masturbating with the hands.

Sloan still corresponds with mobility-impaired Autoblow users. He’s an opinionated character; an entrepreneur who takes pleasure seriously. Though he didn’t plan to be an advocate for the mobility-impaired, or to open new sexual pathways for them, that was the role fortune gave him.

Sloan told Future of Sex how he envisions sex tech will look in the future, particularly for crowdfunders and the disabled. He said it’s about using what we already have in new ways.

Consumers want sex products that cost $10 to $200 maximum. That fact, not technology, will be the single limiting factor for the future of sex toys. Nothing particularly high tech can be made and sold within that price range.

Maybe consumers will change their minds, but my money is betting that they are only concerned with three things: price, ease of use, and realism. Plenty of great products can be designed within the $200 price range that meet consumers needs. And nearly none of those will be “high tech.”

Sloan also explained why Autoblow2.com doesn’t send out freebies anymore:

[Freebie recipients] often claimed that they will post reviews or information on some websites for disabled people and then literally not a single one has done so, so we are kind of done with giving away free products. We did send out several free products to these guys, never to hear from them again.

How Hands-Free Sex Tech Became Crowdfunded

Hands-free sex products have evolved steadily over the last half-century. Activist Joani Blank invented the butterfly vibrator in the ‘70s. It straps around the waist and covers the clitoris, giving women the first truly hands-free solo experience. The Robo Suck II, a self -moving stroker, appeared in the ‘80s, but plugged into a car’s cigarette lighter. Not ideal for those who couldn’t drive.

More recently, The Humpus [NSFW] is two toys, a vibrator and stroker. Each one attaches to a machine that moves them. The Humpus contains no latex, making it safe for people with spina bifida. The Humpus website, which has existed since 2012, brags that it can benefit the mobility impaired.

“One user had a problem with numbness in the hands and fingers,” the website claims, “which made masturbation difficult, so they decided to give the Humpus a try…and what did they think?—’The Humpus is amazing and I doubt I will ever use my hands to masturbate again!'”

Though not crowdfunded, it was the closest that other strokers came to the Autoblow 2’s convenience.

2014 was the year of hands-free crowdfunded sex. Indiegogo also hosted Eva by Dame Products, a wearable vibrator that stimulates both the woman’s clitoris and her male partner by vibrating. Eva received 1,150% of its funding last month and was created with the help of 3D printers. The Ambrosia Vibe also came from Indiegogo, reaching its goal in June 2014.

Crowdfunding for Niche Groups

Backers have used the Internet to help deliver a full spectrum of sex products.

Tech company Crave has been overwhelmed by funding for its Vesper vibrator necklace on the crowdfunding platform Tilt. Crave specializes in adult products disguised as women’s jewelry. The dual-purpose jewelry was thought up by industrial designer Ti Chang under the company name Incognito. She joined forces with Crave after its founder, Michael Topolovac, crowdfunded $2.4 million on AngelList in 2013. The Vesper became available in September 2014.

Kickstarter is the largest crowdfunding site online and only hosts creative projects. However, it stays away from sexual content and rejected Crave as well as LovePalz, which Future of Sex has covered before. Sex technology and its creators need to find raise funds on other sites.

Luckily, adult crowdfunding sites have existed for years and they’ve served far more niche groups than just those for disabled people.

Offbeatr collects funds for adult entertainment, objects, and books. Its most successful campaigns have been for small niches of the adult audience, such as fans of roleplaying video games (RPGs). Even a tabletop RPG, Fapp: Erotic Adventures, received 729% of its funding goal in September 2014. According to the campaign page, Fapp is still being developed.

Several adult products made for the furry fandom were also successful shortly after the site’s founding back in 2011.

Offbeatr has hosted successful tech campaigns like 3D adult entertainment, where a user can walk around the models. Plus, it’s helped a chemist calling himself Kharnak, who wants to make toys and lubricant more realistic than ever using his chemistry and engineering knowledge.

With the connectivity of the Internet, any idea can become reality and no one’s desires are being left behind. Sexual minorities like people with disabilities and furries are finding acceptance. Crowdfunding has made the sex tech market more democratic. If you have dollars to spare, you can choose what will be on sale next.

What would you like to see funded? Leave a comment.

Featured image source: Micael Nussbaumer

The post How Crowdfunding Is Opening Up Sex Tech for People with Disabilities appeared first on Future of Sex.

The future is bright for prosthetic genitals and the people they can help.

Several futuristic treatments have emerged for erectile dysfunction, a condition that affects more than 150 million men around the world.

And two of them are human augmentations: artificial changes to the body that help people overcome their natural limits. These exciting advances were shared in the medical journal Therapeutic Advances in Urology by researchers at the University of Texas Medical School earlier this year.

The two augmentations are listed below, plus other treatments that hint at a sophisticated future for genital enhancement. It looks very different to the present.

Human Augmentations

Tissue Engineering

In 1998, professor James J. Yoo of Harvard Medical School and his colleagues grew cartilage rods out of cow cells. With the rods, they created useable organic penis shafts.

In 2010, Yoo joined a research team from Wake Forest University. It included the famous surgeon Anthony Atala, with whom Yoo had worked with earlier on the aforementioned cartilage rods project. This time they created entire organic penises for rabbits. It had an 83% success rate. Tissue engineered penises are yet to be attempted on human subjects.

New Penile Implants

A machine is surgically placed in the genitals, which engorges the penis when activated. The most widely used implant currently comes in three parts. One part is a pump placed inside the scrotum.

The others are tubes in the penis that fill with liquid to create an erection, and a reservoir of liquid in the abdomen. The user squeezes his scrotum to “pump up” an erection. After sex, one more squeeze makes the member flaccid again. It’s called the Scott prosthesis after its inventor, F. Brantley Scott.

Image source: Angelatomato

Penile implants may sound cutting edge, but they’ve existed since the ‘70s.

Since the turn of the century, the penile implant has evolved in exciting ways. In 2000, Mentor Corporation, now owned by Coloplast, created the Lock-Out Valve, which stops an erection from being accidentally triggered. Scrotal pumps went through a few stages until Coloplast launched the One-Touch Release pump in 2008. Now pumps only need one squeeze rather than several exhausting squeezes.

A new design by Sir Giles Brindley has cut down the amount of surgery needed and streamlined the implant into two pieces. Sir Giles was knighted for his work in erectile technology and is infamous for a lecture in which he exposed his erection to the audience and invited them to touch it.

However, Sir Giles’s new design has a high failure rate. In a study of 31 patients in the UK and Singapore, two got infected and 11 of the implants were mechanical failures.

A whole new implant made of a titanium-nickel alloy is in development. It triggers a perfectly natural-looking erection when heat is applied. It’s called a shape metal alloy (SMA) and is already used in several technologies, including fighter jets and shower heads. SMA was originally created by the U.S. Navy, who called it Nitinol. A patent for the SMA penile prosthesis was filed in 2013 by Brian V. Le and his colleagues.

Other Penile Technologies

In addition to human augmentations, the Therapeutic Advances in Urology article mentions several other game-changing treatments for erectile dysfunction.

Nanotechnology

In 2010, New York-based researcher G. Han and his team developed several gels filled with nanoparticles, which are virus-sized molecules. These molecules are equipped with the chemicals that create an erection. Rats reacted to most of the gels within minutes. While the gels still appear to be unnamed and experimental, this method is expected to revolutionize erectile medicine.

Impulse Magnetic-Field Therapy

A copper coil goes around the shaft of the penis. It sends out an alternating magnetic current, which stimulates the body’s electrolytes. This circulates the blood and oxygen, reversing the erectile dysfunction process, according to a 2002 study in Munich. This therapy has a 500-year-old history of world-changing breakthroughs and quackery.

The coil was first used by legendary physicist Michael Faraday to discover electromagnetism. Impulse magnetic-field therapy began as a treatment for injured horses.

Vacuum Erectile Device (VED)

The VED is a medical penis pump used for patients of prostate cancer and prostatectomy. It gets the blood flowing and opens the vessels by creating a vacuum around the penis.

Apart from encouraging penile health, the VED has antihypoxic, antiapoptopic, and antifibrotic properties. Although it’s only become an erectile treatment in recent years, the first penile vacuum device was patented in 1917, based on an 1874 design by physician John King. Here’s a diagram [NSFW].

Artificial Vaginas

There’s good news for women, too. This year, American researchers announced that four artificial vaginas they developed and surgically attached to patients were working perfectly.

The US-based Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which is directed by Anthony Atala, took the cells of four females. They made vagina-shaped scaffolds out of cloth and let the cells grow around the scaffolds at body temperature.

Doctors later stitched the artificially grown vaginas into the patients’ bodies. The researchers left the patients with their new genitalia for five to eight years, giving annual checkups. Now the patients are all young women with normal sex lives. This gives new hope to women who have vaginal cancer or need reconstructive surgery.

Here’s one of the vaginas being created:

Image source: Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine

While new medicine is always popular, the real breakthroughs of 2014 have been mechanical and biological implants. We’ve even grown and reattached body parts. How do you feel about living in a world where you and your partners could have artificial genitalia?

Image source: Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Note: The article has been updated to clarify that Yoo and Atala worked together on the cartilage rods project.

The post Artificial Genitals Are Now a Reality appeared first on Future of Sex.

Sex robots are being made for more than pleasure—they’re helping couples conceive.

Jiangsu Sanwe Medical Science and Technology Co., Ltd. has developed a machine that extracts human sperm by having sex with prospective fathers. The SW-3701 sperm collector is a tall, white rectangular box with a moving, hands-free massage pipe that replicates a vagina.

The Chinese company is shipping the sperm collector to clinics in America, Russia, Germany, and France. At least one already resides in Japan.

While this sounds like an ideal way for people with certain physical disabilities to give sperm, China is using the machine for male infertility patients who are embarrassed to masturbate in a hospital.

The company’s website claims the sperm collector can provide premature ejaculation desensitization training. It’s also designed to create more sperm in those who have trouble producing it.

Zhengzhou Central Hospital in China was one of the first hospitals to report owning a sperm extractor. First reports in 2011 gave it a $2,800 price tag, though this year Reuters quoted a $13,000 figure.

Users can adjust speed, temperature, frequency, and amplitude on the machine’s imitation vagina. The sperm collector has headphones and a small screen at eye level that plays movies. It’s unclear whether these films are erotic, though the SW-3701’s web page boasts “a full range of visual, auditory stimulation.”

Zhengzhou Central Hospital head of urology, Zhu Guoxin, has confirmed the machine won’t be used for sperm donation, but for couples who are struggling to become pregnant.

He told Chinese news and lifestyle publication ChinaHush that SW-3701’s users must wear a condom. But because most condoms contain chemicals and lubricant that can contaminate the sperm, they can interfere with the strict sperm testing China requires for donors.

In an ironic twist for sex technology, the latest popular sex robot looks nothing like a human. According to Reuters, 10,000 of these machines are sold each year.

Worldwide demand for the SW-3701 comes with growing evidence in Western countries that the young are suffering male infertility issues like erectile dysfunction and loss of interest in real partners. The West may need to use these machines for the same reasons as China. A Swiss study blamed our lifestyles for causing male infertility, while an Italian study cited consumption of online adult content.

The sperm collector seems designed for these issues with its desensitization training, though there are simpler cures. Dr. Tyger Latham, a psychologist who deals with sexual problems, wrote in Psychology Today that 4 to 6 weeks of abstinence from erotic online images and videos will generally cure infertility problems caused by them.

While our need for this machine may be a sign of men’s increasing bedroom issues, it’s also given robotic sex technology an admirable purpose. Sex robots are providing the keys to creating human life.

Do you think robotic sperm collectors will become more popular in the future?

Featured image source: Brannan Mizel

The post Creating Life with Chinese Sex Robots appeared first on Future of Sex.