Posted on April 30, 2018
The United States Patent and Trademark Office receives approximately 2.7 million patent applications annually and while most are never granted, around a third are approved. Of this massive number of new technological concepts and creations, a surprising number will find application in the world of adult entertainment. Whether it’s a mobile LED lighting rig used in handheld shoots or a new video encoding algorithm that streams you erotic VR environments more smoothly than ever before, it often seems like all new tech somehow benefits porn.
Apple eye tracking system can be integrated into a standard-size VR headset
The revelation of Apple’s application to patent what it’s calling an “Eye Tracking System,” registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in October 2017, may not immediately seem to have consequences for the average VR-porn viewer, but a study conducted in 2011 that tracked the eye movements of 11 viewers during a portion of the 2007 film There Will Be Blood have already shown how crucial the interplay between screen staging and the wandering eyes of an audience member is to all visual media.
Apple’s eye-tracking tech is most notable for taking an existing system - infrared light is beamed at viewers’ eyes, the movement of which deflects the light in different directions, to a range of sensors - and making it remarkably compact. Using mirrors to send and receive a side-projected infrared beam without obstructing the wearer’s vision, the system can be integrated into a standard-size VR or AR headset.
Arousal and attraction are known to cause visible changes to the human eye (pupil dilation being the most obvious), something Apple’s system also has the capability to observe. In experiencing an adult-oriented VR environment built to capitalize on such eye-tracking tech, a viewer would not only see smoother graphics, especially with moving objects, but be able to initiate software prompts by entering a higher state of arousal or giving a particular kind of look to an onscreen avatar. In real layman’s terms: users could simply wink at a potential VR sex partner in order to initiate contact or, more importantly, your VR partner could slow down her vigorous riding and grinding if your eyes tell her you’re too close to eruption.
The human visual system is built to deal with disruptions, to perceive a coherent world from fragments of information captured during each moment the eyes rest on a focal point. In porn, visual cues designed to attract these fixations could be planted and exploited to both amplify arousal and minimize data processing loads so as to present as smooth and coherent an environment as available hardware can possibly support.
With such possibilities only leading to more effecting, immersive, and genuinely personalized VR interactions, we’re left to wonder whether the future of tactile VR lies not in actual epidermal contact but in convincing your brain that you’re experiencing the handjob of your life; whether the future of VR (and, potentially, sex) really is all in our heads.