Interesting discussion, this is a concept may be in the distant future, but WOW!

Personally, I'm not that interested in tying it to a game or video. What I'd like to see (and understand that I know good and well this is years beyond Rubbot 1.0) is a device that can respond to the vital signs of its user.

The technology to *get* this information is here today. I know this because of a recent hospital stay--I'm OK, thanks for asking. The nurses at their station down the hall were getting real-time readings from the transmitter in my gown pocket -- heart rate, respiration, the whole thing. If it had been important to have blood pressure, blood oxygen and temperature, that could have been done too.

Now, integrating this into the controller for a sex toy, I realize, must be fairly low on the manufacturer's priorities. But I'm entranced by the idea of a gadget that "knows" when I'm getting closer to climax and can change its behavior accordingly. Imagine being able to set it for five, ten, or fifteen minutes and just settle back for a program intelligent enough to keep you stimulated, yet sophisticated enough to keep you from going over the edge until it's time.

I know. That's waaay too much to ask of Rubbot 1.0. But it's a step.

There might also be some potential in marrying Rubbot tech to the Aneros. But that's a project for another day.

I like the idea that it could be controlled remotely via the net or even via bluetooth on a cellphone. That is if the rubbot is discrete enough to be worn out in public for the cellphone idea. A game where you controlled what was happening and the rubbot matched your input in the game would be good too.

Teledildonics is such a great concept, but it seems to fall apart in application. Simply due to the limitations of the hardware's form of stimulation, the end result is less than impressive.

On the female side you have, generally speaking, a vibrator. Could take on any shape, but for the most part it's your standard vibrator. Your partner inserts it, or places it in the appropriate area, and then you remotely turn it on, off, up, down, etc. This works to some degree, but the level of interaction is so minor that you're really left with very little to do. Your female partner eventually feels frustrated because she's probably much more capable of deciding for herself what strength she needs the vibrator at, meanwhile you're controlling something that's not remotely similar to the type of stimulation you usually provide her with. The only effective form would be some sort of device with which you can control actual pumping of a penetrating device, including depth and speed of penetration. That's drastically more interactive and far more likely to get you truly involved.

On the male's side it's even worse, as discussed on the blog about lack of good male sex toys. The majority of the toys for us that incorporate this are little more than vibrating devices, and vibration doesn't do a lot for us. Sure it feels good, but I've never reached orgasm from vibration and I doubt I ever could. Having my female partner raise and lower it from a distance would do nothing for me.

What's needed are devices on each end that more directly simulate the type of stimulation we would normally provide in person to our partners. The female side needs something that can actually pump in and out (it could also vibrate, spin, simulate ejaculation, and play showtunes for all I care, but it at least has to simulate actual penetration and movement), and the male side needs something that simulates direct manipulation by the other side (whether it be as simple as a hand job or as complex as a blow job) instead of the equivalent of a cell phone ringing in the guy's pocket.

Your device sounds, at least on the male end, like it'll have a better shot at pulling this off than nearly any of the other devices I've heard of.

My real interest, though, as noted somewhere else, is what you could do in version 10, or so, with sensors and advanced software that could learn the user. The ability for it to actually sense your state of arousal, learn your triggers, and adjust its movement accordingly could be amazing. Stick it on quickie-mode, and it'll know exactly what it takes to get you off fast (and adjust its rhythm based on your current state). Tell it to take 20 minutes, and it'll slowly build you up. Tell it to tease you and it'll take you to the edge and then calm back down, over and over again. Or have it consistently hold you on the edge for ten minutes (try getting your partner to do that successfully).

Take those concepts and tie them into a computer game and imagine what you could do. The device could directly simulate the actions of the on-screen partner, carefully adjusting its rate and speed (and making sure the character does the same) to keep you from finishing too soon, while allowing it to time things around the pace of the game. The stage isn't complete yet and you're too close? It'll slow things down. Things are getting further along and you're still not quite there? It brings up the pace. And then, when you do achieve orgasm, your on-screen persona does the same, at the same time (probably the easiest sensor could even match up the pulses during ejaculation).

As I said before, this technology is far ahead and expensive (and the programming for it to learn you is way beyond), but it's far from absurd of unreasonable. Once the fundamentals of your hardware are down and perfected, it's arguably the obvious next step. You're already making a device that does everything automatically, so one that adapts to you and your needs is just an extension of that.

schweeet!

i love the thought of totally hands-free action. . . could you tie it into browser stuff, like if you click on a video - or maybe it could speed up whenever you load a nice big picture