from www.foxnews.com - A demonstration of a new sex game for the Kinect video game console received more than 11,000 hits on YouTube by Thursday morning -- just 15 hours after it was posted.
The controller-free console designed for family fun became a new medium for pornography less than two months after it was released.
The game allows users to simulate sex acts using the console's advanced technology, which requires users to move their bodies instead of a controller.
"The open-sourcing of device drivers for Kinect have enabled the device to be used directly from connected PCs operating on Windows 7. The Kinect interface provides another exciting interface option for users of the sex-simulation software to control the experience in extraordinary new ways," the game's developer, 3D sex-simulation producer ThriXXX, told cnet.com.
But the company acknowledged that its game might be blocked by Microsoft, Kinect's maker, from using its technology.
"We do not have permission from anyone on any of this stuff and have been using stuff from the hacker community to do a working prototype, following what [is] going on in that world," spokesman Brad Abram said.
More than 2.5 million Kinect consoles have been sold since it was launched Nov. 4.
Microsoft was unavailable for comment, cnet.com said.
from www.abcnews.go.com - Microsoft's hot new gaming gadget Kinect is getting kinky.
The hands-free gaming system may have been intended to get people off the couch for some good and wholesome family fun, but an adult gaming company has found a way to use it for interactive porn.
thriXXX, a sex simulation gaming company based in Austria, on Wednesday announced that it had released a demo video showing how the Kinect controller can be used as an interface for a sex game.
"It became another avenue for us to explore the game," said Brad Abram, vice president of business development for thriXXX. "We didn't know where this was going to go but publicity yesterday [Wednesday] brought our five servers down to their knees."
Abrams said the company, which sells 3D interactive sex games like "3D Sexvilla," "Fetish3D" and "3DLesbian," started thinking about a Kinect-enabled game about a year ago, but decided to take a wait-and-see approach. Given the interest expressed in just the past two days, he said the company expects to release a working version of the demo technology in April or May 2011.
Kinect's depth sensor and cameras read a players arm, leg and body motions to render keyboards, joysticks and other kinds of gaming controllers totally unnecessary. The immersive experience apparently is so popular that Microsoft said it sold one million devices in the first month they were on the market.
Drawn to the potential in a $150 device outfitted with high-tech, high-power equipment, a community of hackers started pushing the limits of the device to make the Kinect do things it wasn't intended for. Buzz about the possibility of Kinect sex quickly surfaced, but thriXXX is the first actually to demonstrate a working sex game.
The company's demo video shows that players can just use their hands to directly interact with scantily-clad female avatars on the screen. (By the time the company rolls out the new technology, it also will include male avatars.)
Abrams said the Kinect interface would be woven into its Sexvilla game, which lets players choose avatars for themselves and then select scenes, sex toys and avatar partners to custom-design a virtual sexual experience.
"It's a sex simulation role playing game and you can create any personality for yourself," he said.
One possible barrier to the Kinect connection, however, might be Microsoft.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABCNews.com, but Abrams said it's possible that there could be an issue with Microsoft's license agreement. Still, he said, thriXXX may be able to work around the problem with another company that provides the core technology for Kinect.
But industry insiders say thriXXX's demo video is just the beginning.
"Every single bit of technology has been used for sex at some point or another, and as we check out the history of technology, usually it's at the advent of the technology that this happens," said Kyle Machulis, a software engineer and sex tech expert. "The Gutenberg printing press printed bibles but it also printed erotica."
It wasn't long after Kinect's early November release that he wrote about the potential for Kinect sex on his blog.
"In the games for things like thriXXX is putting out, being able to map gestures is huge," he said. "There's no issue of having to lose immersion."
But, he said, we're still just five weeks away from the product's launch date. Imagine what still could be on its way.
"I think new and interesting things will be coming out of this censor for years to come," he said.
