'She Orgasms When You Touch Her': The World's First Sex Robot?

Sadly, humanity has reached 2010 without flying cars or personal-use jetpacks. But not without sex robots.

At AVN Media Network's recent Adult Entertainment Expo, Douglas Hines of True Companion announced the release of a digitally programmed robot that's like a real woman, only much better.

"She is anatomically consistent with a real person. She has three inputs, so …. what you can think of … for a woman … she can do," Hines assured the audience in a promotional video. "But she can do a little more than a woman. In all of her inputs, she has sensors that can sense when she's being touched." Hines proceeds to finger the spreadeagled bot, while it moans "Stop that. Oooooh!" in a voice that sounds like a cross between an answering service and a phone-sex operator.

Some other ways that Roxxxy is vastly superior to women: her outside comes in blonde, ginger and brunette. Her inside hosts five different awesome personalities, instead of a single boring one, including Frigid Farah, Mature Martha, Wild Wendy and S & M Susan.

"Wild Wendy is very aggressive," says Hines. "She loves to make a lot of noise…. For example, if I start making advances towards her, she says: 'Give it to me hard.'"

It's not just about the sex, though. According to the True Companion Web site, "She will also be able to talk, listen, carry on a conversation, feel your touch and be your true friend." (But it's also a lot about the sex: "She can also have an orgasm when you touch her!")

What’s more, Roxxxy can be customized to create a true emotional connection between sexbot and human. Users can either imbue their companions with entirely different personalities or build on existing ones. They can then hook Roxxxy into the True Companions Web site and share new features with other users—yet another characteristic sadly lacking in flesh-and-blood women.

According to Hines, the idea was conceived during a conversation about a friend who had passed away. "Wouldn't it be great if I could create a robot with artificial intelligence and have it hold someone's personality and preferences? This way, we could talk to the robotic version of that person and ask it questions whenever we wanted." (Just like talking to a dead friend, but also having sex with them by way of a 5-foot-7, 120-pound plastic doll that "has a full C cup and is ready for action.")

Realistic sex dolls were another inspiration. According to the site, people complained their sex dolls were too "catatonic." "They wanted to have their dolls become interactive and be their friends," Hines writes. One anonymous but enthusiastic customer quoted on the site says the dolls "are now brought to life!”

Noel Sharkey, professor of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at the University of Sheffield, says Roxxxy has a leg up on her sex doll ancestors because she has sensors that lead her to respond to touch. And while she leaves much to be desired in the realm of AI, she also shows potential.

"Robotically, Roxxxy seems to be very crude and basic compared to what could be done given the current state of the art," Sharkey wrote in an email exchange. "But then it only costs between seven and nine thousand dollars, which is not a lot in robot terms. Think what you could make for ninety thousand dollars. It is a start down the path of creating artifacts that can give a greater sensual experience by being interactive. Roxxxy is supposed to support conversation as well. I have not heard or seen the conversations, but this is an area of AI that is steadily improving."

True Companion's efforts to improve upon human women are hardly new. A staple of sci-fi, the fembot has also become a fixture of expos and some specialty markets (mostly in Japan). (This piece on Designboom.com gives a useful history.)