How to make sex 'more awesome' using Google Glass
A new app developed at a wearable-tech hack day promises to show what your partner sees during sex - and means you could even turn off the lights with just your voice
Alex Hern
The Guardian Tuesday 21 January 2014 09.52 GMT
Sex with Glass Sex with Glass Photograph: Sex with Glass
Would you wear a pair of Google glasses while having sex? Would being able to see what your partner is seeing make you more or less likely to? Sex with Glass, a new app in development for Google Glass, hopes the answer is yes.
The project started off with the question "how can we make sex more awesome with Google Glass", says Sherif Maktabi, the founder of the project.
The answer to that question is, apparently, shared live streaming, ephemeral video recording and voice controls for your connected home.
Sex with Glass Sex with Glass Photograph: Sex with Glass
Maktabi, a Lebanese product design student at London's Central Saint Martins art college, had only one day with the smart-glasses at a hackathon held in November 2013, but development has continued in the months since then.
The cornerstone of Sex with Glass is the shared live streaming: "See what your partner can see… Just say 'OK glass, it’s time' and Glass will stream what you see to each other. And if you feel like stopping everything, just ask: 'OK glass, pull out'."
"Some people find what we do repulsive," Maktabi says. "But a lot of other people – and I am basing this from the emails we are getting online – really desire to try this. People have fantasies, desires and needs. It's personal.
"What they do with that is up to them. Guilt, dogma and shame is something we still widely experience when it comes to sex and how we talk about it."
Sex with Glass Sex with Glass. Photograph: Sex with Glass
As well as sharing viewpoints, the app also offers video to users who want to replay the night – although the videos are deleted automatically five hours after they are created.
On top of that, if the user's home is wired up correctly, the app can control other the lights and music, as well as present a virtual Kama Sutra to anyone who needs inspiration.
Reaction to the app has been mixed. Maktabi cites responses "that range from 'I want to have this now because I want to try it with my boyfriend'", to "I want to write about the anthropological impact of this app on…", and adds that his favourites are "those anonymous messages that just say 'awesome'".
But others have pointed out that the promotion for the app doesn't match up with the egalitarian promises: most of the images are sexualised photos of women, the advertising slogans assume heterosexual couples, and some of the statements are just plain odd ("You'll be able to watch your videos for five hours until they are deleted forever. That's for all the ladies out there.")
Since the Hackathon, the team has grown to include Sabba Keynejad and Satara Achilles, a pair of graphic designers from Central Saint Martins, and an iPhone app is now in the works, to be launched in early February.
Despite Google's crackdown on other sexy Glass apps, including a ban on sexually explicit content, Maktabi sounds unconcerned about its response: "People at Google know. And they are happy and had a good laugh. But I don't know what Google 'the thing' thinks of what we are doing."
