Personality plus ... Roxxxy with her inventor, Douglas Hines. Photo: AFP
LAS VEGAS: Roxxxy the sex robot had a coming-out party in Sin City at the weekend.
In what is billed as a world first, a life-size robotic girlfriend complete with artificial intelligence and flesh-like synthetic skin was introduced to adoring fans at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas on Saturday.
”She can’t vacuum, she can’t cook, but she can do almost anything else if you know what I mean,” said her inventor, Douglas Hines, of the company TrueCompanion.
”She’s a companion. She has a personality. She hears you. She listens to you. She speaks. She feels your touch. She goes to sleep. We are trying to replicate a personality of a person.”
At 170-centimetres tall and 54.43 kilograms, Roxxxy ”has a full C cup and is ready for action”, said Hines, who was an artificial intelligence engineer at Bell Laboratories before he started up TrueCompanion.
The anatomically correct robot has an articulated skeleton, which means it can move like a person even though it cannot walk or move its limbs independently.
Robotic movement is built into ”the three inputs” and a mechanical heart that powers a liquid cooling system.
Roxxxy comes with five personalities. Wild Wendy is outgoing and adventurous. Frigid Farrah is reserved and shy. There is a young and naive personality and a Mature Martha that Hines describes as having a ”matriarchal kind of caring”. S&M Susan is geared for more adventurous types.
Aspiring partners can customise such features as race, hair colour and breast size. A male sex robot named Rocky is in development.
People ordering the robots online at truecompanion.com detail their tastes and interests to get the mechanical girlfriend in synch with her mate.
”She knows exactly what you like,” says Hines. ”If you like Porsches, she likes Porsches. If you like soccer, she likes soccer.” Roxxxy can chat with her flesh-and-blood mate, and touching her elicits a variety of comments.
Inspiration for the sex robot sprang from the September 11, 2001 attacks. ”I had a friend who passed away in 9/11,” Hines said. ”I promised myself I would create a program to store his personality, and that became the foundation for Roxxxy True Companion.”
Hines sees the robot as a recreational innovation and an outlet for the shy, people with sexual dysfunction and those who want to experiment without risk.
Roxxxy costs between $US7000 ($7634) and $US9000 depending on features.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
