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Finally, the invention I wanted all my life has come to pass:
"A British company has released the first pictures of a 'smart condom' which collects very intimate data about the sex life of anyone brave enough to wear it.
The device is called the i.Con and can detect STIs as well as sending data about a sex session straight to the wearer's smartphone.
British Condoms said its 'revolutionary wearable tech for the bedroom' measures the number of calories burned during intercourse, the speed of a man's thrusts, how long he lasts and even what positions are used.
The condom firm said its invention would help men see how they 'stack up to other people from around the world'."
[...] The smart condom is a small band which fits around the bottom of a man's willy, which means wearers will still need to strap on a normal condom to get full protection.
It is waterproof and features a band that's 'extraordinarily flexible to ensure maximum comfort for all sizes'.
Bizarrely, it even lights up to provide illumination for both partners' nether regions.
Now, we can all compete in the Direct International Comparison Kinetics. Hooray. ;)
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday December 01 2017, @08:24PM (12 children)
That's approximately the last thing men would want to have: A machine telling them they're bad in bed. Especially the guys who thought they were going to find out that they're the greatest in the sack. Plus, it's not like there's a single universal standard: Different people want different things when it comes to getting it on.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Friday December 01 2017, @08:45PM (9 children)
Would you rather:
A) Not know that you were bad in bed.
B) Have a list of things to improve on.
Of course there's not a universal standard, and you might want to be above or below the average for a given criteria depending on the circumstances, but feedback tends to be helpful for learning loops. Think about the question in terms of any other physical activity, like jogging. Why wouldn't you want to know how much the average jogger swings their shoulders? Maybe you shouldn't swing your shoulders that much, but having a baseline comparison at least gives you something to consider.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Friday December 01 2017, @09:24PM (2 children)
In this activity, I don't need a technological feedback loop, because I have 2 perfectly good feedback loops:
- My own body, which tells me if what I'm doing is good for me.
- My partners' reactions and words, which tell me if what I'm doing is good for her.
And those are the only opinions that matter.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JNCF on Friday December 01 2017, @09:40PM (1 child)
You may have merely found a local maximum; more data might help you experiment with things you haven't tried yet, or haven't tried in the right combination.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday December 01 2017, @11:53PM
The local maximum, namely what me and my partner are feeling like we both want and are able to do at a particular moment, is exactly I'm after.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Friday December 01 2017, @10:26PM
Problem is, you'd also need to have one for your tongue and fingers or it's missing half the stats, lol.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1) by ACE209 on Saturday December 02 2017, @12:31PM (2 children)
I recommend getting that feedback from your partner instead.
Even if it means talking to each other.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Saturday December 02 2017, @02:05PM (1 child)
Note that I'm not arguing for using this device, with all of the privacy problems that would entail. I'm just arguing that the data would probably be useful for people looking to improve their sex lives. I'm also not discounting the usefulness of talking about sex with the people you're fucking, but I don't think the people I'm fucking have access to the kind of data that this magic cock-ring will -- and vice versa. There's no need to pick one source of data or the other.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Saturday December 02 2017, @09:56PM
While it's certainly likely some useful data could come out of this (assuming it's actually legit data and not a bunch of people doing the joking stuff mentioned in many threads here), I agree with most of the other posts here. There are probably dozens of better strategies to improve your sexual performance rather than measuring stuff like thrust speed or whatever this thing is going to do.
It's not just about talking to your partner -- it's about being open with your partner. If your partner is a woman, most women in many Western cultures are still taught to be a bit coy. Even if you have a completely open and honest relationship otherwise, talking about what gives her pleasure openly can still be very, very hard. So, working that is a long-term project in many relationships.
Again, assuming we're talking about female partners, you also have to deal with the fact that so much of sex for women is tied up in their brains. This isn't just speculation or BS psychology; it actually has to do with measurable differences in the types of hormones that get different sexes excited, cause orgasms, are released during pleasurable sex, etc. For women, a LOT of this has to do with what's going on in their heads -- and none of that is going to be measured by a magic cock ring. If you want to improve sex for a woman, chances are spending more time with her "head" rather than worrying about thrust speed will pay a lot more dividends.
And then even if you want to talk about physicality, you need to look at the fact that women's bodies aren't only about what a penis is doing in terms of getting pleasure. Every woman is obviously different, but while men are very centered on their penises in terms of pleasure (often), for women, there's a lot more to the act. If you're not tracking what's going on with hands and tongues and other body parts, you're losing the majority of the useful data.
Bottom line: you're not going to suddenly become a sex god by varying your penis motion, which is seemingly the main thing this device will track. That's a very male-centric perspective on sex. Maybe you might improve your own pleasure a bit through analysis of your personal data, but it's highly doubtful to me that this sort of data is even accounting for 5% of the kind of stuff that actually is relevant to improving sex performance from a female perspective (probably less).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 02 2017, @10:57PM (1 child)
More likely:
C) Start receiving e-mails and texts for products that prey upon one's insecurities about their sexual prowess...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 02 2017, @11:25PM
"Start"? You must be very careful about giving out your e-mail addresses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 01 2017, @10:44PM (1 child)
Have you not seen this site?
https://www.strava.com/ [strava.com]
It's full of (mostly) guys that want to track their cycling/running performance and compare with others in their age group (or other group).
The same hyper-competitive personality types will be all over this.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Friday December 01 2017, @10:52PM
Those are the kinda guys that love slapping *thalon stickers to their Subaru with Thule racks covered in every conceivable outdoor attachment for bikes, boards, kayaks, etc. Then they get mowed down by guys like me while drunk, high and smoking a Marlboro menthol with a fresh McDonald's cheese burger in my hand driving home from the local dive bar because I'm too lazy to walk.