Earlier this month, Linden Lab released a demo of a hands-free interface for movement within Second Life. While they were careful to explain that this project is still in the early stages of development, the interface as it stands would allow players to walk and fly through the world using only the positions of their bodies. Apparently inspired by the controls on Segway scooters, a 3D camera would capture players' movements as they stand a number of feet in front of their computer screens--or, as in the case of the demo, conveniently ginormos televisions. Linden also claims that the technology in development can sense facial movement and expressions.
While other bloggers are seeing a potentially ground-breaking new way to interact in a world whose current user interface is a giant pain in the butt, I'm wondering: what will going hands free do for sex in Second Life?
Obviously, having free hands facilitates easier masturbation. However, the demo only showed hands-free movement--and most Second Life residents don't fly or walk while having sex. Still, if we think ahead to an entirely mouse-less, keyboard-less virtual world, one in which our avatars can match our movements one for one, the possibilities are endless. We could not only "touch" ourselves (i.e. I touch my breast, and my avatar touches hers), we could reach out and touch each other. Silly as it may seems, we could even enact mutual sex acts, each on our separate ends of the screen.
Of course, hands-free online sex as a reality may be a long ways off, but one thing is for sure: it would definitely change the way we interact sexually in virtual worlds... Thoughts?