Kinect Sex Game Offers Interactive Porn
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WATCH Will Kinect Get Kinky?
Microsoft's hot new gaming gadget Kinect is getting kinky.
The hands-free gaming system may have been intended to get people off the couch for some good and wholesome family fun, but an adult gaming company has found a way to use it for interactive porn.
thriXXX, a sex simulation gaming company based in Austria, on Wednesday announced that it had released a demo video showing how the Kinect controller can be used as an interface for a sex game.
"It became another avenue for us to explore the game," said Brad Abram, vice president of business development for thriXXX. "We didn't know where this was going to go but publicity yesterday [Wednesday] brought our five servers down to their knees."
Abrams said the company, which sells 3D interactive sex games like "3D Sexvilla," "Fetish3D" and "3DLesbian," started thinking about a Kinect-enabled game about a year ago, but decided to take a wait-and-see approach. Given the interest expressed in just the past two days, he said the company expects to release a working version of the demo technology in April or May 2011.
Hackers Find Creative, New Ways to Use Kinect
Kinect's depth sensor and cameras read a players arm, leg and body motions to render keyboards, joysticks and other kinds of gaming controllers totally unnecessary. The immersive experience apparently is so popular that Microsoft said it sold one million devices in the first month they were on the market.
Drawn to the potential in a $150 device outfitted with high-tech, high-power equipment, a community of hackers started pushing the limits of the device to make the Kinect do things it wasn't intended for. Buzz about the possibility of Kinect sex quickly surfaced, but thriXXX is the first actually to demonstrate a working sex game.
The company's demo video shows that players can just use their hands to directly interact with scantily-clad female avatars on the screen. (By the time the company rolls out the new technology, it also will include male avatars.)
Sex Tech Expert: Technology and Sex Go Hand in Hand
Abrams said the Kinect interface would be woven into its Sexvilla game, which lets players choose avatars for themselves and then select scenes, sex toys and avatar partners to custom-design a virtual sexual experience.
"It's a sex simulation role playing game and you can create any personality for yourself," he said.
One possible barrier to the Kinect connection, however, might be Microsoft.
In a statement, the company told ABCNews.com, "This isn't the first example of a technology being used in ways not intended by its manufacturer, and it won't be the last. Microsoft did not authorize or license its technology for this use. Xbox is a family friendly games and entertainment console and does not allow Adults Only (AO) content to be certified for use on its platform, and would not condone this type of game for Kinect."
Abrams acknowledged that there could be an issue with Microsoft's license agreement but said thriXXX may be able to work around the problem with another company that provides the core technology for Kinect.
And industry insiders say thriXXX's demo video could be just the beginning.
"Every single bit of technology has been used for sex at some point or another, and as we check out the history of technology, usually it's at the advent of the technology that this happens," said Kyle Machulis, a software engineer and sex tech expert. "The Gutenberg printing press printed bibles but it also printed erotica."
It wasn't long after Kinect's early November release that he wrote about the potential for Kinect sex on his blog.
"In the games for things like thriXXX is putting out, being able to map gestures is huge," he said. "There's no issue of having to lose immersion."
But, he said, we're still just five weeks away from the product's launch date. Imagine what still could be on its way.
"I think new and interesting things will be coming out of this censor for years to come," he said.
+The Conversation: Hackers Kinect in a New Way
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