For too long, intimate interaction with the computer has meant awkward usage of the mouse and keyboard on top of the usual sliders and menus UI paradigms. Who finds that sexy? Now, using the popular open-source Arduino hardware platform, the skeletal sensing capabilities of the Kinect, and the Processing programming language, sex-tech researcher Kyle Machulis will show how to create a complete, “hands-free” interaction pipeline, incorporating everything from network communication to joint sensing to hardware control. By the end of the workshop, participants will have an idea of what a fully integrated system for control of remote sex hardware requires, and how it can affect the user experience. Along the way, participants will learn about the history and current state of “intimate” technology, as well as design concerns to be taken into account when creating new interfaces.

Recommended levels: Intermediate. Experience with Arduino and Processing is a plus but not required. Kinect experience is a plus, too (i.e. this is not a basic API course; it will help if you know how to fetch and relay OpenNI skeleton joint positions from your API of choice).

Note: Workshop cost is $125 (includes a $45 hardware fee for an Arduino and associated components). Among other bits and bobs, you’ll receive a Pen15 shield — a medium-power PWM shield for driving a vibrator motor from the Arduino, designed by Kyle Machulis and Pittsburgh’s own BirdBrain Labs Tech-to-Go!

Read some of Kyle’s thoughts about Kinect Teledildonics at Slashdong.

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