Sexbot? Not!

By Eric Pettifor

Back at the end of 2007, my tech prediction was that 2008 would be the year of the sexbot. This seemed a sure thing based on two developments: highly realistic sex dolls like those from RealDoll, and a cute little dinobot called Pleo capable of responding to human interaction and its environment. Cross Pleo with RealDoll, and what do you get? The first basic sexbot, of course.

2008 passed with no developments and likewise 2009. But at the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas at the beginning of this year, Roxxxy, the world’s first sexbot allegedly, was unveiled.

I don’t know if the following vid will play for you if you’re not a member of youtube and logged in. When I tried while not logged in it gave me a warning saying that it wasn’t appropriate for everyone. This may be because at one point in the demo, Roxxxy has one of her between-the-legs “inputs” touched.

 

If you can’t see the vid, the summary is that Douglas Hines of TrueCompanion.com mentions all the right things in his speech, such as servos, AI, stimulus/response, and even user chosen multiple personalities. However, all you actually see is a talking doll.

Here is a reallybadradio.com video interview with Douglas Hines, in which he makes Roxxxy sound great, but, again, Roxxxy herself just sits there making middle aged, balding, bespectacled Hines himself look sexier by comparison. It’s not a good sign when a heterosexual male finds himself thinking he would rather do Roxxxy’s creator than Roxxxy.

 

One can google Roxxxy and get back a lot hits about the debut, but no reviews. The TrueCompanion.com web site is very weak on content and strong on contact forms. This is unsettling, since the timing for a scam that looks like this is just about perfect. By my estimate, the official announcement is overdue, so it’s easy to imagine someone going to a sex industry trade show, dressing up a mannequin in lingerie, and having a female assistant watching from behind the curtain make utterances appropriate to where the mannequin is being touched. Collect hundreds of advance orders for between seven and nine thousand dollars each, and k-ching, easy money. I’m not saying that’s the case, but Douglas Hines needs to do a much better job of selling this thing if it’s for real and as good as he says.

The following dark parody vid from somethingawful.com is kind of fun, if you can get past the youtube block and are familiar with the 9/11 reference on the TrueCompanion.com Who We Are page (at least that’s how things stand as I write this; at some point in the future better sense might lead to it being expunged). Apparently the whole process leading to Roxxxy began with speculation on how one could replace dead friends with robots, including a fellow who died in the attack on the World Trade Center. The actual parody of Roxxxy’s various personalities occurs at about 1:24 if you want to skip the Douglas Hines material they tacked on at the beginning.

 

Roxxxy appears to be more of a bad joke than even a basic sexbot. But the year is still young. Perhaps the real deal will debut at an actual tech show, since it would constitute a genuine technical achievement. It could even have the potential to steal the focus from the much buzzed about Apple Tablet. That could be a tough choice for a geek with only so many thousand to spend!