If you wanted to be a porn star,” says Emi, a spokeswoman for Segment, “but you didn’t want to get an agent and a manager and all that, you could use our products and build a fan base and get famous.”

She smiles brightly and proceeds to show me a product suite from her Japan-based company (NSFW) that is the latest entry into consumer-level teledildonics. It’s an example of what happens when folks from diverse disciplines combine their skills to create new ways to merge sex and tech — and then introduce the result to the adult industry.

In this case, it’s a collaboration between software developers and a product designer with a background in medical devices. And it moves teledildonics in an interesting direction.

Unlike HighJoy (NSFW) and Sinulator (NSFW), which connect two people’s sex toys in real time over the internet, the Segment system combines video and tactile input into a single file that your fans — or your lovers — can play back at their leisure.

The input device, called Run, is an onyx shaft with a bulb on one end and sensors spaced along its surface. You use it in tandem with a webcam or camcorder and the Segment software. When you stroke the device with your hands, or lips, or whatever, the software captures the placement and pressure of each touch and embeds the signals into the video.

(Read more…)