A Cyprus start-up sex tech company has developed an AI app that can ‘identify and measure all stages of the human orgasm’. Or rather, it developed it early last year. Unfortunately, the idea that this was an app to be used only by men to spot fake female orgasms took hold on Twitter, with an inevitable resulting backlash and ridicule. To their credit however, the company – Relida Limited – stood firm and tried to ride out the storm. They patiently explained that not only could the app measure and analyze both male and female orgasms, but it was created by a woman. However, it seems that the damage has been done, as although their website is still up, they appear to have struggled to get any backers for their project.
The trouble began when the start-up contacted Stu Nugent, who is the brand manager of the leading (mainly) women’s sex toy firm Lelo, on the professional social network Linkedin. They had sent him a slideshow in an effort to explain and market their app to him and to Lelo. The slideshow apparently contained information and data relating to female orgasms, including the statement that a high percentage were ‘faked’. Also in the slideshow was the claim that the app designed by Relida Limited could correctly ‘validate’ a female orgasm with 86% accuracy.
Lelo’s brand manager was predictably furious. He tweeted excerpts of the slideshow to his followers, and it quickly became viral. Relida Limited’s private marketing push to Lelo had turned into a public disaster for themselves, but gained some free and easy positive publicity for Lelo themselves.
“To be frank, we already have a very robust and reliable system for deciding whether our designs are pleasurable, and that’s by asking the people who use them,” he said.
“In any case the orgasm isn’t necessarily the right metric for measuring the pleasurability of a sex toy.”
Firm defends algorithm that ‘spots women’s orgasms’ (BBC)
Relida defended themselves by insisting that their app had been misunderstood, and that it was in fact a sexual wellbeing app for both men and women, designed by a woman.
According to their webpage as it is today, the app records an orgasm through the measurement of heart rate (through a fitness tracker or heart rate monitor). It claims that it works for both men and women and that it is a tool for couples.
As it requires the measurement of the woman’s heartrate, and thus her consent, then it’s hard to see what the problem is here. Perhaps a male partner has low sexual self-esteem, and finds it difficult to believe that his lover is really orgasming? In that case, and if the woman is sympathetic, why would that be such a bad thing?
The fact is that it’s much easier for women to fake an orgasm than it is for men. While it might be a reasonable opinion that a sexual relationship in which the male doubts the honesty of his partner’s orgasms is an unhealthy relationship, the possibilities of this app elsewhere are still promising.
For example, it could be used in virtual sex with a webcam girl using interactive haptic/remote sex toys. Why shouldn’t a man who is spending a lot of dollars on believing he is bringing a performer to orgasm be allowed to know that he really is doing so, rather than the girl simply going through the motions and faking it? Of course, with the sex worker’s consent, and as explained above, it would have to be.
The app could also be used to better facilitate virtual sex with digital avatars. It could measure the participant’s heartrate in order to recognize when an orgasm is being reached and thus create more realistic responses, and/or to further sexually simulate the other partner to achieve a mutual climax.
In a similar way, it could be just one biometric measurement of several or many, to improve masturbation in a virtual reality environment or in response to a 3D game.
Clearly there is a lot more to climaxing than the peak moment, there are a number of phases including the build-up and post orgasm (a sexual response cycle), our measurements in these phases provide crucial information.
As we complete the next phases, we aim to make the algorithm predictive by analysing the response cycle of orgasms in real-time.
The Relida app may have been badly (privately) marketed, to say the least, but it would be a shame if the potential of the idea was not realized in some form.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_orgasm#Gender_differences
