Imagine a world where the internet is no longer restricted to screens, but rather a space that you can navigate through, where you can transport yourself to both fantastical or hyper-realistic places.
This is the goal of Virtual Reality (VR), defined as a, “computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional image that can be interacted with in a seemingly real or physical way.”
While VR may feel like a faraway dream of the future, industries of all sorts have been investing millions to see its development into an effectively working technology. Applications of VR span from immersive gaming to drawing in 3D to re-envisioning social networking all the way to virtual board meetings.
To access these “worlds”, you need to wear a special headset, with the biggest players being HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.
But what’s Virtual Reality got to do with pornography?
Innovation within the sextech industry has, in past years, been overlooked. But that’s changing, in fact the porn industry is driving progress of VR more than anything else.
No longer do viewers have to passively watch porn from their computer screens, but they can jump in and immerse themselves in Virtual Reality porn scenes, including fantastical ones that could never be possible in reality. Place your headset on, and suddenly you can be in the middle of an orgy in the rainforest or receiving a one-to-one lap dance in the sky.
The integration of Virtual Reality with porn in the future means that people will be able to explore their kinks and fetishes in a more realistic way, without having to go through with the deed in reality.
Virtual Reality porn can act as an empathising tool where we can put ourselves in others shoes (i.e. gender, race, etc.), understanding one another in a more intimate way and having the ability to try on other identities. Not to mention, that virtual sex means no unwanted disease or pregnancy.
On the other hand, many fear that the already addictive qualities of being online and using porn could be exasperated by Virtual Reality porn. Could the future of VR porn transform the way we interact with one another socially, and develop relationships? Whilst some people will still opt for real world mates, there is a possibility that others will opt for virtual ones.
Wait, so I can see it, but can I feel it?
More than creating hyper-realistic content where viewers can observe porn stars as if they were in the same room, spin off technologies are already being developed to intensify interactions, so viewers can feel interactions.
Take teledildonics for example; these are toys that are controlled and linked remotely (like Crescendo) and stimulate the sensations of sex even if thousands of miles stretch between the two users (something Crescendo will do in the near future!).
When teledildonics are linked with virtual reality porn it means that users could feel as if they are actually receiving oral sex from an actor in the film, or get a live handjob from a cam girl. It also signals the possibility of two users masked as their personalised avatars meeting in a virtual world (i.e. dating game) and having sex.
Virtual Reality and porn, coupled with technologies like teledildonics brings physicality to the next level.
While much hype is around Virtual Reality porn, it still leaves many asking – can sex with a machine replace the real thing? Will it replace holding, touching and intimacy with a person?
As of now, the technology lies in a grey space between fantasy and reality – feeling more realistic than porn but still far away from reality. Virtual Reality porn still has a long way to go before it emulates being in a room intimately with someone else, an intricately rich sensorial experience that appeals to not only sight and sound, but touch, smell and taste as well.
Millions are being spent to make Virtual Reality porn feel as realistic as possible, and we’re fascinated to witness its influence within the industry, and for pleasure more broadly.
