Good Morning Silicon Valley: So, how'd a doll like you get into this business, anyway?

jan 11th, 2010

in case you were thinking of purchasing one of those inflatable dolls that comes in a plain-brown-paper wrapping, wait! there's hope yet if you can shell out a few thousand bucks. i just love the stuff about how the doll is um... "functional in a utilitarian sense", yet "catatonic" otherwise. that should be just fine with most guys :-)

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From: SiliconValley.com

Good Morning Silicon Valley So, how'd a doll like you get into this business, anyway? By JOHN MURRELL Among all the legacies of 9/11, the strangest may be Roxxxy, the interactive sexbot. Engineer and inventor Douglas Hines once worked on artificial intelligence for Bell Labs, but in the early '90s decided that his true calling was designing life-size sex dolls. His company, TrueCompanion, introduced "Trudy" in 1993, and while she was functional in a utilitarian sense, customer feedback indicated that her personality, somewhere between "catatonic" and "deceased," left something to be desired. Then, in 2001, one of Hines' friends was killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center, leaving the inventor thinking about ways to preserve elements of a personality in an artificially intelligent, interactive robot. Hines started his work on artificial personalities thinking there might be a market in creating home health care aides for the elderly. "But there was tremendous regulatory and bureaucratic paperwork to get through. We were stuck," Hines said. "So I looked at other markets." Thus was born Roxxxy, who made her debut this weekend in Las Vegas at the Adult Entertainment Expo, just one of several new innovations showing up at the intersection of sex and technology. Roxxxy still can't move without assistance, but she offers what Trudy lacked and customers apparently wanted — conversational skills. "Sex only goes so far — then you want to be able to talk to the person," Hines said. Equipped with sensors and an attached laptop, "she's a companion," he said. "She has a personality. She hears you. She listens to you. She speaks. She feels your touch. She goes to sleep. We are trying to replicate a personality of a person." Or several people, to be precise. Roxxxy comes equipped with five personalities that determine the tone and content of her responses, from the outgoing "Wild Wendy" to the shy "Frigid Farrah." Roxxxy's interests are customized based on the buyer's answers to something like an online dating questionnaire. "If you like Porsches, she likes Porsches. If you like soccer, she likes soccer," Hines said. What's more, users will be able to create and exchange custom personalities for their dolls. "Just think about wife or girlfriend swapping without actually giving the person to someone else," Hines said. "You can share the personality online." (I know — the "ick" factor just keeps getting higher.) Roxxxy will retail for between $7,000 and $9,000, plus a subscription fee for online updates and enhancements. Those who prefer a male companion will have to wait for work to be finished on her cyber sibling, Rocky. Comment on this post