Teledildonics is technology for remote sex, where tactile sensations are communicated over a data link between the participants. The term can also refer to the integration of telepresence with sexual activity that these interfaces make possible. The term has also been used less accurately to refer to robotic sex, i.e., computer-controlled sex toys that aim to substitute for or improve upon sex with a human partner.
Products
Sex toys that can be manipulated remotely by another party may be on the market. These toys sometimes come with movies to which the toys' actions are synchronized by means of a previously-written script. Other products being released fit a new category called bluedildonics, which allow a sex toy to be controlled remotely via a Bluetooth connection. A report in 2008 suggested that teledildonics, along with text and email and webcams, can be used to "wind each other up to fever pitch during the working day" as a prelude to sex with a human during the evening hours. New technologies can help people establish "emotional connections" via the web. Indeed, teledildonics technology has already been integrated with adult online webcam services and certain sex toys, such as OhMiBod, Lovense and We-Vibe. A book reviewer of David Levy's Love and Sex with Robots in The Guardian in 2008 suggested that teledildonics was "but one stage in a technological and social revolution" in which robots will play an increasingly important role, with artificial lifeforms that will "attend to our needs with magic fingers"; Levy argued that by 2050 "sex with robots will be commonplace." Some products have been shown at the Museum of Sex in New York City.
Views
Promoters of these devices have claimed since the 1980s they are the "next big thing" in cybersex technology. A report in the Chicago Tribune in 1993 suggested that teledildonics was "the virtual-reality technology that may one day allow people wearing special bodysuits, headgear and gloves to engage in tactile sexual relations from separate, remote locations via computers connected to phone lines." The responses to teledildonics have been mixed; however, the dominant concern has centred on the separation of personal intimacy and embodied presence. In the words of one early text on the subject: At the 2016 South by Southwest Festivalvirtual reality entrepreneur Ela Darling asserted that patent holders were preventing the production of teledildonic technology. Many companies experimenting in the field have been hit with patent lawsuits. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has named one such patent the "stupid patent of the month". That patent expired in August 2018, lowering the barrier of entry to the field.
