While sextech might seem like something of the 21st century, humans have been creating devices to enhance sexual pleasure for thousands of years. From the Ancient Greeks carving toys from stone in the sixth century BCE, to the Victorians patenting a steam-powered dildo, as a species we’ve always been fascinated with increasing sexual pleasure through DIY devices.
But unlike the sex robots currently making headlines across the world, or bodyhackers attempting to defy biology with pleasure implants, a San-Diego based artist has developed a device that measures her own biological arousal, with the aim to encourage a healthier dialogue about the intersection of technology and sexuality.
Robot maker Sarah Pektus has spent a year designing the SHE BON, a ‘cyberpunk’ exosuit comprising multiple wearable devices that collect data from different sensors placed around the body.
Two central components work together to measure when individual parts of the body cross a “certain threshold” of arousal; the central backpack (described by Pektus as the computer tower) and the arm-mounted user interface (described as the monitor).
Individual wearable augments – seen above in the diagram – can be plugged into the central backpack which receives data from each sensor and sends it to the user interface.
This interface – the PopGirl, no doubt a reference to the old-school PipBoy processor – acts as an indicator for what’s going on around your body (like a computer monitor).When a certain area of your body becomes aroused, the ‘robot girl’ diagram displayed on the PopGirl changes colour. The interface also displays figures for more accurate readings of your body’s arousal level.
It doesn’t stop there though. Pektus has gone one step further to build ‘Propeller Pasties’ (nipple propellers that spin faster as arousal increases); the ‘Hot Spot’ (a hip-squeezing belt which uses straps to pull your thighs apart when the temperature between your legs warms up) and the ‘Beat Box’ device, which emits sound waves at a volume equal to your heart rate – watch the video below for a more detailed explanation.
Earlier this month, Pektus entered SHE BON into the Hackaday Prize 2018 in the human-computer interface category. The challenge brief was to build an innovative interface that makes using technology a more intuitive and natural activity. Pektus also brought the exosuit to the Future Innovators Summit in Tokyo earlier this year.
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