When a device doesn’t listen: one year with interactive tech

General
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I used a well known interactive device for about a year. I went through different phases with it, and eventually I lost interest. It wasn’t easy to understand what I was feeling or what exactly wasn’t working for me, but here’s what I’ve come to realize: for some reason, interactive devices just don’t offer what I’m looking for at the moment.

They are one-directional. The emotions they transmit through movement only go outward. There is a complete lack of awareness or response from the device about how I’m feeling on multiple levels. This absence leads to several negative effects. I experienced less pleasure, and in some cases even discomfort (I wished it would slow down), and above all, an unusually high number of ruined orgasms. I’ve never had that many before.

I really hope that someday we’ll see sensors that allow for two-way communication with these devices. If that existed, I don’t think I would have experienced those problems in the same way.

When using the device with VR, I had to rely on mods, I also had to use a special belt to keep the device attached to my body. That turned out to be essential, but no official manufacturer seems to have realized it yet. If they did, they might also understand that there’s another critical missing feature for VR use: spatial tracking. Without it, you simply can’t interact properly with adult VR games.

I’m left wondering how long we’ll have to wait for these improvements. I’m writing this to bring some closure to my experience and to share my feedback with the community.

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P.s.
I wanted to clarify that when I wrote “I experienced less pleasure” I was referring to what I imagine I would feel if the communication were two-way, not in a general sense.

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I don’t like the “interactive” labeling, imo it’s a misnomer. it’s a shame this has been one of the most common descriptors for these products. getting your dick rocked by a robot doesn’t make a video interactive. it is immersive, but not interactive. the video doesn’t react to my actions unless i pause it in the player.

if you link the devices to an already interactive experience, meaning something designed to take input like a game, you can have decent results, but the interaction isn’t natural. interfacing with your hands on a keyboard and mouse or holding a vr controller is just not ideal. and while you will get full visual and audio feedback, the physical feedback will be limited by your haptic setup. which for most people will be a stroker or a vibrator.
a game designed for haptics or a well done mod can still be fun and satisfying, but it’s very noticeable that you can’t interact on that haptic axis that you’re adding. intuitively you want to, but you can’t. like how people turn their controllers playing a racing game.
i guess we need a wii steering wheel for sexbots

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I have used my Handy and other “interactive” toys in games. I’ve tried Virt-A-Mate, interactive adult visual novels, and some game integrations. I found them unsatisfying mainly because of the complexity of getting them to work. By the time everything was setup right and working I’d lost interest.

Now I use the Handy in VR with videos and funscripts exclusively. I have my Handy on an articulated microphone arm attached to my desk. I can squirt some lube in, pull it into position, grab only the right hand VR controller, pop the VR headset on, open the Quest version of HereSphere, and click my bookmark for xbvr in under a minute. At that point I’m ready to enjoy the wealth of downloaded content I have available. HereSphere automatically connects to and controls my Handy using the funscripts associated with each video in xbvr.

I think the ease of use the Handy with the combination of software brings to the experience is woefully underrated. I have an SR6. It’s fragile, awkward, heavy, and ultimately requires several additional PC-based applications to get working. I’m happy for the folks who find the experience with it and other DIY devices satisfactory, but for me the Handy is far superior because it is easy to enjoy.

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There are many things about this post that don’t sit right with me…
I had originally typed up a long post like the others, but it came off as rude so rip.

I will say this: Your emotional state, your assumptions and expectations going into a session has a large effect on your experience overall, whether it’s with a mechanical device or a real partner. If you think you’re gonna have a bad time, you probably will.

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Vr games are dead. Zuckerberg killed them when he bought oculus. This means what we got is the best we’re gonna get. On the flip side though, Ai and Robotwaifus are on the horizon, which should, in theory, give you that true interaction you’re looking for. The next 5 years things are going to REALLY start heating up! but for now, this is the best we got.

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Maybe im out of line here, but i dont think you are ever going to find that type of fulfillment from an object or machine. strokers are meant for just that, stroking. its not supposed to be a substitution for any kind of connection that can be reciprocated. i dont mean to come off as rude but i think you might need to talk to someone or maybe just take a break from funscript community and touch grass. the problem is not the technology my friend. its the way we use it that can be a problem.

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To cut back on the judgement, I’m gonna say you probably do want a person controlling the toy. I found my experience of people controlling to be vastly different and of course a lot more interactive since your average milker can read the cues just from your video feed whether you’re getting close or need speeding up etc.

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…i hear you OP, but don’t despair. Your points about VR are completely valid, once we get a decent 6DOF mod, fixed spatial objects, and all that then yeah, it’s gonna feel sooo much better. ATM u need to go full Virtamate for that, which is complex.

The point about one-direction with the feels is valid, but not a limitation. Most people are using single axis strokers, with linear scripts, quite happily. My guess is that most people are happy to interact with a device that is acting on them, whereas you’re specifically looking for something that acts with you. i use both, so i hear you.

As regards scripts, i love the way they work with a format like Cock Hero, where the machine is going to fuck you, and you better grit your teeth and endure. But i also love a good handcrafted action based script as well… to be fair mate you can always pause it, lower the speed manually, hit edging mode, etc… it does require some interaction from yourself to maintain the ‘fantasy’, or yea, you’re gonna let the machine win. Try and think of the machine as more like a puppet, it’s interacting with you, but you do need to control it as well. Also, sort your hands free out, that’s a no-brainer. Makes so much difference having a decent hands-free set up. You’ll stop being distracted by the machine ‘being a machine’ and enjoy the porn more.

But if you really want to go down the fully interactive route, you need try and procure an Edge-O-Matic 3000. They’re as rare as hens teeth, but they really do what they say. A sensor will detect your arousal level, and never let you cum, whilst constantly edging you… it’s quite the most amazing experience, but does come with various provisos, you need to find the right setting for yourself, it can take time to fine tune, needs an anal insert, and so forth… but once it’s working… there’s nothing else like it… it’s literally mind-blowing…

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For me, trying to feel any pleasure during orgasm in an automatic script is like trying to taste a top-quality ingredient hidden inside a McDonald’s sandwich one that’s already smeared with mustard, mayo, and ketchup. It’s absurd that there’s no on screen button to trigger at least a second script designed just for that moment, free from the usual synchronization.
(iPad The Handy app video player or faptap)

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LONG POST INCOMING
I pretty much agree with just about everything in this thread.

I know there is at least one product out there for edging that has some sort of a sensor you stick up your butt that I can only assume measures how much you clench to gauge how close you are to orgasm, but the entire thing is expensive and I don’t want the other things in that kit.

I’d definitely like a solution for days where I’m wanting to be even more hands-free and have something like Virtual Succubus or Lustbound with the ability for it to actually detect the user’s engagement/excitement/proximity to orgasm, but as mentioned there’s quite a lack (to my knowledge) of sensors to detect that, and there isn’t any datasets nor AI models that can do anything with that sensor data.

As mentioned in this thread and one somewhere else, I wish strokers like the handy had the ability to toggle between scripts or something, basically a “finisher” button. Otherwise the outcomes for me are either: 1. try to last until a cum section in a video, or 2. pause and switch to another section/another video. The latter I generally have issues with, where scrubbing to different points searching for what I want loses sync or just messes up the handy, especially on longer scripts. When dicking around with that fails to work right it either leads me to ruin or just discontentedly settling for whatever is playing/finishing myself manually.

I doubt anything AI related is anywhere near commercial availability, but I’d got to imagine the butt sensor thing or other types if provided with a simple wireless/usb interface could help with “interactive” applications if the user could tweak the range of values, then pipe that in for example to inversely modulate the internsity/range of a stroker (I’m imagining something like on x-toys).

The simplest least-invasive solution would be a firmware update for the handy, such as triple clicking the button that switches between wifi/bluetooth that just immediately plays a script loaded into memory. It doesn’t have permanent storage, but I’m sure through an app like on their website they could effectively partition the internal buffer to allow the uploading of two scripts as long as their combined duration fits (or just upload a finisher).

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…not exactly. It’s actually detecting the tiny fluctuations in your prostate, so it’s utterly impossible to ‘cheat’ it. Most frustrating device in the universe. In a good way. You can clench and squirm and what not (to a certain extent) and it doesn’t care, but if you actually feel any pre-orgasmic stirrings, it reacts.

It does have a clench detect as well, so you have the option to get it to push you over the edge after an arbitrary amount of time, and respond appropriately (ruin / orgasm/ post torture, etc).

But having to use the buttplug every time is massively inconvenient, so yea, somewhat niche bit of kit at the end of the day. The vibrator’s really good though, and the kit’s sound, it’s just stupid money cos it’s just two people hand making everything, unfortunately.

Doesn’t FW4 have provision for ‘press button to execute a specific script pattern’ by now? i completely hear you about the ‘press button for orgasmic script’…

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If only there was not buttplug related way of auto edging…it can be a dream

Maybe some eye\face tracking, i’ve seen something weird with you blood pressure analyzer
but nothing even come close to practical usage(

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Just a wild thought. I wonder if EEG (electroencephalography), used to measure brain activity, combined with an personal AI model trained on you specifically could be used for edging? You need something around your head, but that’s probably more convenient than sticking an inflatable up your butt.

Relatively cheap EEG devices can be bought for $500-$1000 (relatively compared to those used in science). If they are sensitive enough is another matter and I have no idea if you could train an AI to detect pre-orgasm brain activity.

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That theoretical idea i’ve also seen before, but there is nothing ready for use about that, not even instruction for DIY of some sort

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I think some of these things are solvable right now in software. I would say that most interactive setups start with handsfree (am using the belt setup the ‘ballsy’ 3d print) and VR. For tech if you add in AR passthrough and get the scale right, you are now in your room, and then if you can struggle through the virt-a-mate set up with passthrough at roomscale and get it controlling the toy in a scene that is well developed and a 3d model then you are on another level as well.

So for interactivity, once you are in some state where you can convince yourself that what you are looking at is ‘real’ it comes down to the software and the content. For videos they are really on rails and it will rely on content. Most content that we digest is a man who has injected something right into his dick to numb and make it hard at the same time while an incredibly attractive girl hammers on it with practiced proficiency. Most of us are going to explode immediately in that situation IRL, which is why it’s very hard to essentially become the person in the video. However if the pacing of the video is correct, the man is aroused, and the woman is keeping him there in sequence, you can almost mentally link up with the scene such that you are pretty much having the same arousal cycles as the male actor and as the woman works him up and down again you are getting the same treat.

But really the simplest solution is to have a remote or control in your hand and can push a ‘cumming’ button so the video can skip to a cumming sequence that has appropriate motion.

For more interactivity where if you had a 3d model that could adjust on the fly like vam (potentially) could, you would just need an arousal slider to modify as you are feeling things, clicking up/down from soft to hard to edging to cumming. It would be very difficult to write but not impossible. You just nee to then have the character adjust actions in real time, like if the user was at an 8 and they go down to a 4 it would know to adjust the sequence to something that the user likes better or need to restart up, or just if you are clicking every edge out it could use that in real time to keep you there if that was the goal.

We have the tech right now to have a lot more interactivity, just we are missing the software driving it and software linking everything all together. The realtouch, maybe over a decade old by now, proved this all out that we had the means. The final level of interactivity is the joystick and webcam driving things over cam with two people involved with one another which is probably as good as you get.

Really the porn thing as a could hanging over everything slows it down, but things have progressed really nicely and I think we’ll continue to drive towards it. I do think that we could simulate much more interactivity right now, just the knowledge and willpower to do so isn’t quite there yet, but I do believe it is building.

The low hanging fruit that could probably be done today is another common format next to the funscript that has arousal timestamps and a video player that has inputs for adjusting arousal, at a minimal a ‘cumming’ button that hops to the cum sequence in the video, but could also skip to other video files or timestamps for ‘soft to hard’ or ‘edging to mid’ or ‘edging sequences’ etc.

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I wish there was a way to suggest the idea of a firmware update for a button to toggle to a second script to the Handy developers. Other than the firmware update to support that, the only other thing they’d need to augment is their API for uploading the script, just add an index parameter to choose the first or second script slot. Bonus if their site supports it as well.

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You can do that on their discord. They have a channel called software-feedback that might work. You can also try PM or tag @handyAlexander who is a company representative that is a user here on ES.

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I made a python program that connects to my funsr 2.0 with intiface central and uses an ai with text to voice and sound to text to control the device, I instructed it to ask the user for readings of pleasure to try to get to the edge and if the user does not repply then it slows down, it is also instructed to make the user beg. But to prevent ruins it also does what the user asks of it. I would love to share the code but im new to that, and I made it to work on spanish.