Buttplug: An open-source software suite for teledildonics (opens in new tab)

I... wow.

Many thanks to whoever sent that complement, as well as dang for pointing it out to me. It's been a pleasure to be in this thread, lots of interesting questions and honestly unexpected (but certainly welcome!) positivity.

I'm printing this out and hanging it on my wall.

1. This is a topic that actually, seriously comes up often on cam model forums, and verification of authenticity is, to me, something that is just completely fucked in terms of even being an idea. Do these same customers get angry when they find out the movie they just paid to see was fiction?

2. Are you familiar with findom? Cause that's like, just straight up what findom is. Literally unbalanced trade of capital as fetish.

Are people afraid of watching a recorded show? Or are they afraid of watching a "virtual" model who is the creation of an AI?

In the former case. wouldn't the "cam" worker be able to achieve the same "proof of life" by simply having a conversation with the customer? Eg, the customer types something in chat, and the worker responds on the live stream?

In the latter case, if it is all virtual, then its all virtual, and response to a toy could just be faked.

> A sufficiently sophisticated operation could use canned footage to fake the apparent call and response here

I mean, if the tech reaches such heights that a customer can't tell it from a human, does it even matter for the customer?

(Actually I think that on an emotional level it does, but realistically it's a question of inputs to the brain, i.e. the whole Matrix mind-body thing. Anyway, I'm sure this is firmly in the AGI territory.)

On those first two, we use Tampermonkey as a research platform for A/B testing integration with stock web interfaces.

https://github.com/buttplugio/buttplug-tampermonkey

On the tracking of muscle contractions, I'd recommend checking out the Nogasm project, an open source orgasm denial system that uses air pressure changes to track pelvic floor contractions, which are indicative of arousal levels. These could be tracked against, say, bug rates in code to monitor affective states in developers.

https://github.com/nogasm/nogasm

For Buttplug specifically, it's just a hardware control library. While there are ways to use network-as-ipc for the system (mostly to establish control from browsers that don't support hardware access internally), it's not recommended as a basis for a service without some modifications.

Buttplug is a core technology of my startup, alongside the user facing Intiface brand (https://intiface.com). I'll be working on more network focused services there in the near future, where I'll be addressing more security focused questions.

If you're curious about some of the beginning directions of that, I posted a full Teledildonics 101 workshop last month on my youtube channel, that goes over systems design thinking for remote intimacy, including some touchpoints on security.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDZBOOe-bdwNAjm018ql9...

I HAVE VISITED THIS!

I did a sex tech workshop like, 3 blocks away from it, and Paul McCarthy is a major influence on my work! :D

Taken at pure sensory value, yup, you're completely correct. These are an extremely lossy compression of physical intimacy. It's like watching a 4k movie compressed to like 4 pixels of monochrome color.

However, you really have to look at the surrounding situation and mental state of the user to get why any of this matters. When you've got enough endorphins flowing, the slightly augmentation to sensory input can have a multiplicative effect. Since the brain regulates whatever your reality is, it's our job to fuck with that (in good ways) more than it is to make some completely mechanically/physically correct 1:1 recreation of sex with another person.

Let's say you're stuck with audio/video chat for intimate relations. But you've added some touch via teledildonics! Sure, it's crappy touch, but someone you want actually touching you but for some reason can't can now at least control that touch!

The media loves to spin sex tech as "this will replace sex in the future" a la Demolition Man or whatever, but that is both the wrong goal and complete bullshit. The fun part of all of this for me is building machines and interfaces to do what people and their genitals can't, and providing technology to build those interfaces/machines to see what other people come up with when freed from the tyranny (allow me my melodrama here) of human form.

This also allows us to build new forms of intimacy, possibly very, very silly forms. As an example: I work with cam models a lot, trying to build interfaces that aren't quite as a objectifying as the usual cam room. One time, I worked with a model and her fan club to hook up Rocket League (yes, the cars in hats playing soccer rocket league) to a sex toy, so any time the controller vibrated, her sex toy vibrated. There's video of how this works (and the software I used to do it and the github repo) here:

https://intiface.com/ghr

Now, this probably sounds like some weird as hell sex. Cam model is on camera, nude, using a toy, playing 3 v 3 rocket league with up to 5 cam room customers. However, this means that the normal rules of rocket league get bent. Players were no longer interested in goals, but rather, in how to cause the model's controller (and therefore toy) to vibrate. This might mean crashing into cars (Hi JG Ballard fans!), trying to get goals when the model was close to a goal to make big explosions, etc... It ended up in all of these continuously shifting team/social structures as people would join/leave, figure out new things, etc... Everyone ended up playing for hours, everyone had a really good time, and it was interactive for both the model and the customers.

So, basically, you've gotta look at these as new forms of sex, not replacements for what we've got. They may not even be good forms of sex, but hey, if everyone's consenting, no one gets hurts, and even maybe it turns out to be a buggy horrible mess, it's fun to try, right?

It's really difficult to say? There's lots of media articles right now about teledildonics being the future and super popular during COVID, but I'd say the real winner here is video conference still. Teledildonics has a LONG way to go in terms of UI/UX before it'll really catch on, and I would never go as far as claiming it's a replacement for physical intimacy, much as VR isn't a replacement for actually being somewhere. Rather, it's an augmentation of it, and a way to allow us to be or feel things that may not even be possible (for better or worse).

There have been a few (tried Trello and ZenHub), and they've all turned into a mess, so I recently hit the reset button again and am just trying a github project now:

https://github.com/orgs/buttplugio/projects/1

tl;dr - Right now I'm trying to standardize our logic on Rust (I'm also the ex-device interfaces lead on firefox at Mozilla, so I love some rust :) ), then extend back out to other languages and platforms through FFI to the Rust base.

The Rust work has also ended up creating other libraries, including:

- systray, a library for building simple systray apps with rust: https://github.com/qdot/systray-rs - btleplug, a cross-platform host side Bluetooth LE library in Rust, mostly via copypasta but hoping to unify soon: https://github.com/deviceplug/btleplug

In the end, Buttplug is just a hardware abstraction layer, think of it like the USB HID or Bluetooth Profile model, except outside of the protocol specification space. I'd like to abstract the back end a bit more and allow other projects to use it, so you could have, say, a library that abstracts health device protocols or something.

We'll be doing FFI to C ABI calls from our rust library very soon, which should make this doable. I've talked to LoversLab project people before about Skyrim, but nothing much has come of it.

Rumble rerouting support for Fallout 4 works with the GHR I think? https://intiface.com/ghr

> Skyrim/Fallout 4

Not the titles I'd expect in the context of electrosex.

(I'm oldschool so something in the vein of Leisure Suit Larry or Lula the porn studio management simulator would seem quite proper for me.)

There's this link in another comment: https://github.com/qdot/deldo

I'm guessing not pico or nano

Hi Don. :)

We're currently using Azure Pipelines, but trying to move down to Github Actions as we don't really need the whole Azure ecosystem quite yet.

As for the hardware part, well, let's just say I can never, ever, ever have a zoom meeting where anyone can see my desk.

There's lots of interest in support for many languages. It's more that the codebase is 99% one developer (me), and there was a ton of fragmentation early on that I'm still working to clean up, that both makes it hard to implement new systems as well as hard for others to contribute. We're getting there.

I'm hoping to stop cranking out code and actually write the developers guide soon, which I think will help immensely.

There's a few lists around the front page of our website, but the most comprehensive is:

https://iostindex.com/?filter0ButtplugSupport=3

Qdot did I ever show you, like 8 years ago after some Arse Elektronica, my thrusting brushless linear motor based sex machine? I designed and built brushless linear motors from scratch as well as the drive electronics. Anyway I never made it in to a business and lately think I will open source it all. I was going to ask for your email but I just discovered metafetish, so I can post something there. I'll do so in a few days.

Anyway I haven't seen you in 8-10 years but it's good to see you around here!

If you ever find one, let me know. I'd love to have a sonicare that just lets me use its power button as a simple on/off toggle. No timers, no 30-second stutters. Not even joking.

Hey qdot! Not sure if we've ever met, but definitely talked a bunch around the Comingle days...glad you're still working to make this happen! - Craig (formerly @ Comingle)

My dental insurance, Beam, sent me a free Bluetooth toothbrush when my company signed up. There's a companion app with plenty of settings to change power and patterns too. It may be worth looking into!

Man I used to download that app not knowing what it was intended for. I thought it was just an app to test your phone's vibrator.

One can’t help but wonder how much that trend has accelerated now that the modern phone is waterproof and trivially cleaned.

Probably the same prudish parents who got outraged over the ET Finger Light.

https://2warpstoneptune.com/2015/02/13/e-t-finger-light-knic...

Or the Dune Sandworm Action Figure:

https://2warpstoneptune.com/2014/08/28/ljns-dune-toys-sandwo...

Sometimes a Dune Sandworm Action Figure is only a Dune Sandworm Action Figure.

Yes. Please do not put the controller in your butt.

With enough peanut butter and acceleration, all things are possible.

>We had a live model at the late Dennis Hoffs cathouse near Reno with a lovense in her vajayjay taking ETH porntoken ICO investments in her toy through the ethereum blockchain.

I'm a native English speaker, but apparently not a native teledildonics speaker. I can't make heads or tails of this sentence.

"This falls somewhere between parody and possibly documentary, as James Bartholet portrays the same character in all four scenes, who is referred to as either Mr. Weinstein or Harvey. That, and the still photo of the real Harvey Weinstein that appears during the ending credits, pretty much cements the intended identity."

It's a crying shame. The reason I chose .io for porntoken is because .io which is for Indian Ocean is also a dual meaning pun that in the context of sex is often interpreted as in/out like as in a peepee going in and out of a vajayjay or poop chute.

All older two letter domains are all country codes. ccTLD is the term vs gTLD for the original com/net/org/edu but also now refers to all the custom tlds.

I saw that there weren't mobile apps and a backing service as part of this yet, but I am rooting for you to get to that point. It'd be great to see a community-driven open-source response to Lovense and the other companies like that which dominate the industry currently.

Nah. Remember the Grindr leak?[1] Nothing changed.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/04/grindr...

There's been some really neat work around teledildonics and anonymity. I highly recommend Sarah Jamie Lewis's Oniondildonics work: https://mascherari.press/oniondildonics/

Maybe Privacy will bring sex to the internet

Not surprising at all; people always say sex/porn has brought most of the advances of Internet technology (at least in the earlier days).

/serious hat

I don't believe there's been a case history yet of "hacking + sex crime", but many of us in the community believe that this is a strong possibility.

It's one thing to target fintech, or some website, or a general SaaS offering. However when you're targeting sextech with the knowledge that a hack allows remote unintended stimulation (read: sexual assault), shows that they intended the hack and intended sexual assault.

(Obvious NSFW Warning)

I am not sure if I get banned for posting this, but is this the company you are talking about: https://dildoking.de/ ?

> The only inhabitants are US and British military personnel and associated contractors

So wait, all .io domains map to a US/UK military base in the Indian Ocean?

How does that affect privacy...?

Hi, I think you do a service to the world, I am a seller of toys, as shop owner, but was/am reluctant to sell teledildonics just because of security problems, I will keep a close look on your project to decide if and when I will start selling them and point my customers to your project. Any chance of using golang in the future?

You should definitely start a gofuckme campaign.

That is correct. (Though usually 3.5mm.)

seriously, I have it sitting on my PS4 at like 95-100% in everything after one playthrough when I first got it, except Area 5 because I really cannot be bothered to run it like 5x in a row to remember all its little tricks. I'll probably buy it again when I replace this PS4 and there's a re-remake.

If you haven't played Polybius or Sayonara Wild Hearts, I can highly recommend them - they are both games that stroke their fingers gently across the same places that Rez tickles.

Care to name some of the favorite/popular ones? You know... for science.

Well, I'm now aspiring to the same level of dedication to avoiding eye contact.

Yup, patent expired in August 2018 (I did a lot of research and consulting work on that, it's a huge story in and of itself). Of course, these days the landscape is death by a million tinier patents.

Which is why an app that supports all of the gadgets regardless of make/model could be useful.

What use case are you thinking of? Two peers, or routing through networks of distributed decentralized peers?

For the latter you could take your existing model and add an extension "gateway protocol" that would connect servers to servers, and through that protocol support advanced routing, which would in effect become a distributed decentralized peer to peer network.

(obviously all that is a lot more work than you need for your use cases, but it seems like an interesting way to give people sexual agency without either a) commercial infrastructure or b) potentially unsafe public services)