TrueCompanion Press

Thanks to Medicare, which wouldn’t reimburse for the cost of a help-mate robot, Roxxxy the robot is now seeking employment in the adult entertainment business.

by Evan Lucy

“I thought this was actually going to be a business call,” says Douglas Hines when Discovery News Tech called him late last week. You’ll have to forgive the TrueCompanion founder for being a bit absent-minded. After all, Hines caused an uproar of disbelief and excitement in January when he unveiled Roxxxy, “the world’s first sex robot,” at the Las Vegas’ Adult Entertainment Expo.

The robot boasts artificial intelligence, speech recognition technology and a bevy of recorded phrases, making it able to, on some levels, converse with her mate. She also has a personality-changer, an Internet connection to receive software and dialog updates, all for a price between $7,000 to $9,000.

With pre-orders of his invention reaching above 4,000 and a host of media attention in his corner, Hines took a break from his business calls to speak with Discovery News Tech about the robot’s origins and his expectations for the project.

Discovery News Tech: Why did you develop Roxxxy?
Douglas Hines: We came up with the concept of using a robot to help care for — not to replace a nurse — but help people who need extra care at home: invalids, Alzheimer’s patients, etc. It might not be cost-effective or practical to have a nurse full-time with the patient. But the robot would allow interaction with the patient as well as the technology to connect remotely and talk and care as needed. Because Medicare wouldn’t reimburse for the cost of it and because of concerns from a liability and insurance standpoint, we tabled that idea for the time being. But that’s actually catching on now too, so we’re really excited about all the momentum that’s being developed.

DNT: Why the switch from healthcare to sex?
DH: It was through necessity and opportunity. We have lots of patents around this technology and trade secrets. We’d also invested a large amount of time, energy and money. We basically looked for another marketplace for the product. We looked for opportunities with areas that needed a niche or were lacking innovation or real development, and we saw this as an opportunity to really stand out. There hasn’t been much innovation in the adult arena. There was a real opportunity to apply this technology into a new industry and breathe a lot of new life into it and create opportunity and a lot of added value.

DNT: How long did it take to fully develop the project?
DH: It was just myself back in 1993, when I developed a prototype using similar technology. But since 2000, this has been an ongoing project. The past three years have been focused on the adult community. It’s been a long road of refining.

DNT: Were you expecting such a frenzied reaction at the Adult Entertainment Expo?
DH: Not at all. But we’d done a tremendous amount of market research beforehand. We like to take calculated risks and not blind risks. We knew she would be received well. We spoke to two of the largest adult entertainment companies and  knew this would be very big. We knew there was a market need and there was a niche we could fulfill, so we were excited. But we had no idea it would be so big, especially with [the Consumer Electronics Show] down the street. It was pleasurable to be able to talk to the technical people and other engineers. We had a lot of people come over from CES to see Roxxxy.

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By: Bill Andad

I am old enough to remember the Westworld movie which starred Yul Brynner as a malfunctioning robot cowboy. It also featured sex robots, androids which allowed paying punters to indulge their every sexual fantasy. Of course, Westworld was a big hit in 1973 and I guess it was only ever going to be a matter of time until that fantasy became a technological reality. Some 27 years on and the world’s first sex robot has made an appearance in Las Vegas at, perhaps somewhat fittingly, the recent AVN Adult Entertainment Expo.

The Roxxxy TrueCompanion is said to be more than just an advanced ‘blow up doll’ which, considering it will cost you upwards of $7000 plus a monthly subscription fee is just as well. How much more advanced? Well the manufacturers claim that it comes complete with a programmable artificial intelligence engine which can learn just what turns you on and off. Advanced as in it is five girlfriends, although that is probably the wrong word, in one. According to the manufacturers the robot comes with the five personalities built in, be it Mature Martha or Wild Wendy that you want. It’s even possible to create your own custom girlfriend profiles and, should you so desire, swap them with your other sad sex robot owning mates.

The man behind Roxxxy, if you’ll excuse the expression, is a former AT&T Bells Labs AI scientist called Douglas Hines who spent more than two years bringing this fantasy android idea to market. At the launch Hines said that Roxxxy had been designed to “deliver the best in robot sex”. It seems that those who attended the launch in Vegas were impressed not only by the AI but also the synthetic skin which produces a flesh-like look and feel for the anatomically correct robot. There’s even a liquid cooling system to ensure that feel is never too hot and sweaty, powered by a mechanical ‘heart’ of sorts. The thing can even talk and makes comments in response to your touch. It’s not quite into Westworld territory though, as this sex robot cannot walk despite having an articulated skeleton under the synthetic skin.

If all of this has not freaked you out enough yet, I am led to believe that a male sex robot called Rocky is currently in development.