The ‘Huggable Internet’ Is Changing the Game for Remote Sex
Augmented reality expert Scott O’Brien on interactive sex’s swift steps forward
Last November, Future of Sex threw our very first Meetup event in Sydney. We attracted a lively crowd who came out to see our group of thought-provoking panelists, which included augmented reality pioneer Scott O’Brien.
Scott not only shared his insights into the development of augmented reality. He also spoke about the world of online sex, and how it hasn’t always been viewed as an outlet for unbridled pleasure. However, the times are changing. Today, we have haptic technology that lets partners feel their lovers’ movements when they are far away—a move toward the “huggable Internet.”
For those of you who missed out, here’s Scott giving his clever and intriguing views on the evolution of augmented reality and remote sex. The transcript is below the video.
Haptics is the feedback, the kinaesthetic feedback, of interacting. Mark will have some great things to say from his days of setting up for web and 3D interaction. But I think the whole game is changing quicker than ever. We’ve had a very slow 20 odd years of remote texting and so on, but now it’s coming into actual visualizations of partner and the actual kinaesthetic feedback. A friend, Dr. Adrian Cheok, who is Aussie now based in the UK, calls it the “huggable Internet.” Once we’ve got the huggable Internet, we’re playing a different game.