Bits for your bits
Earlier this year, video on demand giant AEBN demoed RealTouch, a $200 device that promises its users that they will "feel what you see on screen". It achieves this in much the same way as game controllers deliver vibration, but instead of a vibrator it uses flexible belts - and instead of holding it in your hand, you put it - we're sure you can imagine.
The USB device uses a combination of belts, a heating element and lubrication to deliver what AEBN describes as "one-of-a-kind technology designed to make sure that you get the most authentic sexual experience possible, however you like it." As you might expect, if you don't shell out for AEBN's compatible video clips, the RealTouch won't work.
NOT NICE: The appallingly named Virtual Hole (and its sibling, the Virtual Stick) promises computer-controlled ecstasy. We're not convinced
Is this the future of porn? Steven Hirsch isn't convinced. "I'm not sure it's a billion dollar business," he says. "I think guys go online, they go to a site, they're on for fifteen minutes and they're doing it in their lunch break or whatever. I think that's where the real dollars are."
To be honest, we're not entirely convinced either - not least because one of our mottos is "never put anything involving a heating element near your genitals". So what technology is Hirsch excited about?
TV - albeit in the form of IPTV. "To me, IPTV is really the be-all and end-all," he says. "When your TV is a computer and you can go to a site, whether it's TV or you're surfing the Internet via a simple chip embedded in your TV, that's super-exciting for us. That's a business we're looking forward to being in."
IPTV THE FUTURE: Vivid has often been dubbed the Microsoft of Porn. The tech it's most excited about isn't teledildonics: it's IPTV
