Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Lovotics: Love and Sex with Robots

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Emotion in Games

Part of the book series: Socio-Affective Computing ((SAC,volume 4))

Abstract

The publication of the book “Love and Sex with Robots”, late in 2007 by Dr. David Levy, heralded a new era in this somewhat controversial field. Human-Robot intimate relationships were no longer pure science fiction but had entered the hallowed halls of serious academic research. This book chapter presents a summary of significant activity in this field during the recent years, and predicts how the field is likely to develop. We will also detail about our research in physical devices for human-robot love and sex communication.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Adult Entertainment Expo

  2. 2.

    In the USA.

  3. 3.

    The Hugvie project grew out of an earlier Ishiguro project called “Telenoid”

  4. 4.

    The sole review on Amazon.com as of May 2013 suggests that this product is poorly made and describes it as “a piece of junk”.

References

  1. Levy D (2007) Love and sex with robots. Harper Collins, New York

    Google Scholar 

  2. The Colbert Report (2008) http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/147893/january-17-2008/david-levy

  3. Yeoman I, Mars M (2011) Robots, men and sex tourism. Futures 44(4):365–371

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Nomura S, Teh K, Samani H, Godage I, Narangoda M, Cheok A (2009) Feasibility of social interfaces based on tactile senses for caring communication. In: The 8th international workshop on Social Intelligence Design – SID 2009

    Google Scholar 

  5. Samani H (2011) Lovotics: love + robotics, sentimental robot with affective artificial intelligence. PhD thesis, National University of Singapore

    Google Scholar 

  6. Lovotics ISSN 2090-276X, e-ISSN 2090-7214

    Google Scholar 

  7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roxxxy. Visited on 29 Dec 2012

  8. Samani H, Cheok A, Ngiap F, Nagpal A, Mingde Q (2010) Towards a formulation of love in human-robot interaction. 19th IEEE International Symposium in Robot and Human Interactive Communication – Ro-Man 2010

    Google Scholar 

  9. Samani H, Cheok A (2010) Probability of love between robots and humans. In: IEEE/RSJ international conference on intelligent robots and systems, Taipei

    Google Scholar 

  10. Kuwamura K, Sakai K, Minato T, Nishio S, Ishiguro H (2013, August) Hugvie: a medium that fosters love. In: RO-MAN, 2013 IEEE. IEEE, pp 70–75

    Google Scholar 

  11. Mueller FF, Vetere F, Gibbs MR, Kjeldskov J, Pedell S, Howard S (2005, April) Hug over a distance. In: CHI’05 extended abstracts on human factors in computing systems. ACM, pp 1673–1676

    Google Scholar 

  12. http://cutecircuit.com/collections/the-hug-shirt/

  13. Teh JKS, Cheok AD, Peiris RL, Choi Y, Thuong V, Lai S (2008) Huggy Pajama: a mobile parent and child hugging communication system. In: Proceedings of the 7th international conference on interaction design and children. ACM, pp 250–257

    Google Scholar 

  14. Brooks-Gunn J, Paikoff RL (1993) Sex is a gamble, kissing is a game”: adolescent sexuality and health promotion. Promoting the health of adolescents: new directions for the twenty-first century. pp 180–208

    Google Scholar 

  15. Samani H, Parsani R, Rodriguez L, Saadatian E, Dissanayake K, Cheok A (2012) Kissenger: design of a kiss transmission device. In: Designing interactive systems conference – DIS 2012

    Google Scholar 

  16. Levy D (2006) A history of machines with sexual functions: past, present and robot. EURON Roboethics Atelier, Genova

    Google Scholar 

  17. Levy D (2006) Emotional relationships with robotic companions. EURON Roboethics Atelier, Genova

    Google Scholar 

  18. Levy D (2006) Marriage and sex with robots. EURON Roboethics Atelier, Genova

    Google Scholar 

  19. Levy D (2007) “Robot Prostitutes as Alternatives to Human Sex Workers” IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Rome. Reproduced as “The Ethics of Robot Prostitutes”. In: Lin P, Abney K, Bekey G (eds) (2012) “Robot Ethics”. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp 223–231

    Google Scholar 

  20. Levy D (2012) The ethical treatment of artificially conscious robots. Int J Soc Robot 1:209–216

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Sullins J (2012) Robots, love, and sex: the ethics of building a love machine. IEEE Trans Affect Comput 3(4):398–409

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Amuda Y, Tijani I (2012) Ethical and legal implications of sex robot: an Islamic perspective. OIDA Int J Sustain Dev 3(6):19–28

    Google Scholar 

  23. Ziaja S (2011) Homewrecker 2.0: an exploration of liability for heart balm torts involving AI humanoid consorts. In: Mutlu B et al (eds) Proceedings of the international conference on social robotics (ICSR 2011), lecture notes in artificial intelligence (LNAI vol. 7072). Springer Verlag, Berlin, pp 114–124

    Google Scholar 

  24. Levy D (2012) When robots do wrong. Invited paper, Conference on Computing and Entertainment, Kathmandu, November 3rd–5th. Available at http://share.pdfonline.com/87cad18d73324e8fb2eaae1cddb60f77/Kathmandu_final_text_October31st.htm To appear in Lovotics, vol. 1

  25. Russell A (2009) Blurring the love lines: the legal implications of intimacy with machines. Comput Law Secur Rev 25:455–463

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Gates S (2013) Brazilian sex doll’s virginity: bids for valentina’s flower surpass $105,000. The Huffington Post, 7th Mar 2013

    Google Scholar 

  27. Hofilena J (2013) Japanese robotics scientist Hiroshi Ishiguro unveils body-double robot. Japan Daily Press, June 17 2013. Available at http://japandailypress.com/japanese-robotics-scientist-hiroshi-ishiguro-unveils-body-double-robot-1730686/

  28. Torres I (2013) Japanese inventors create realistic female ‘love bot’. Japan Daily Press, March 28, 2013. Available at http://japandailypress.com/japanese-inventors-create-realistic-female-love-bot-2825990/

  29. Hugvie. www.geminoid.jp/projects/CREST/hugvie.html

  30. Sumioka H, Nakae A, Kanai R, Ishiguro H (2013) Huggable communication medium decreases cortisol levels. Scientific reports, 3

    Google Scholar 

  31. Nishio S, Taura K, Ishiguro H (2012) Regulating emotion by facial feedback from teleoperated android robot. In: Ge et al (eds) International Conference on Social Robotics, LNAI 7621. pp 388–397

    Google Scholar 

  32. http://robotic.media.mit.edu/projects/robots/mds/headface/headface.html

  33. DeSouza C (2013) Sexbots, ethics and transhumans. http://lifeboat.com/blog/2013/06/sexbots-ethics-and-transhumans

  34. Fundawear Reviews (2013) www.fundawearreviews.com

  35. Belford A (2013) That’s not a droid, that’s my girlfriend. The Global mail, February 21 2013. Available at www.theglobalmail.org/feature/thats-not-a-droid-thats-mygirlfriend/560/

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. City University London, London, UK

    Adrian David Cheok

  2. Imagineering Institute, Nusajaya, Malaysia

    Adrian David Cheok, David Levy & Kasun Karunanayaka

  3. Retro Computers Ltd, London, UK

    David Levy

Authors
  1. Adrian David Cheok
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. David Levy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Kasun Karunanayaka
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Adrian David Cheok .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Communication and Computer Systems, National Technical University of Athens, Zographou, Greece

    Kostas Karpouzis

  2. Institute of Digital Games, University of Malta, Msida, Malta

    Georgios N. Yannakakis

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Cheok, A.D., Levy, D., Karunanayaka, K. (2016). Lovotics: Love and Sex with Robots. In: Karpouzis, K., Yannakakis, G. (eds) Emotion in Games. Socio-Affective Computing, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41316-7_18

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation