VR Porn Potential Is Opening Eyes in the Industry

Virtual reality pornographic views up by 275 percent since the summer of 2016, according to PornHub.

October 29, 2017 11:54 am
VR porn
Adult films star Ela Darling attends Upload hosts exclusive celebrity E3 Virtual Reality Party at Exchange LA on June 14, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by JC Olivera/Getty Images,)

Technology has finally caught up with humanity’s most primal instincts.

The rise of virtual reality has meant a surge of VR porn — with the website Pornhub reporting that views of those type of videos up by 275 percent since it debuted in the summer of 2016, according to The New York Times.

One of the hottest names in the adult film business, Ela Darling, told the newspaper that she’s a convert after having filmed her first virtual reality masturbation scene in a University of Maryland dorm room in 2014…and then viewing the results for herself.

“You can pretend like you are in the bedroom with me, and it is someone you have a crush on,” Darling said. “You are in the experience.”

By using multiple camera lenses to record the same scene from hundreds of angles, the resulting footage gives a 180- or 240-degree view of the moment that provides an immersive experience.

Darling said she first realized the potential after viewing VR at a past E3, the video-game industry’s biggest conference. That lead her to team with a college student on Reddit who was proficient with the technology. Darling ended up launching a company called VRTube.xxx that employs 40 adult actors.

There are plenty of other companies looking to tap into the potential market, including Realbotix, which introduced the first sex robot in May. The start-up is designing a VR interface to allow for more realistic interactions with “Harmony.”

Investment firm Piper Jaffray estimates pornography will be the third-largest VR sector behind video games and NFL content by 2025, the Times reported.

That development would continue the often maligned industry’s role as a technological driver after having helped spur the spread of the Internet in the ’90s.

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