The Stitchfest hackathon at UPenn didn’t know what was coming when Andrew Quitmeyer and Firaz Peer built an Arduino-powered genital shocker for their DIY hacking contest. This was no stunt: Quitmeyer intends for the DIY sex toy to be one of an open source suite when he opens Comingle next August–what he hopes will be the “Adafruit of sex toys.”
The “Electric Eel” prototype uses multiple conductors to zap the wearer’s shaft with low-voltage electricity–which is physically stimulating and definitely won’t burn, Quitmeyer insists, who bravely donned the prototype in front of hackathon judges. Though none of them would try out the prototype, says Peer, one licked an equivalent electrode-lined sheet of fabric…and found it pleasurably shocking.
Any other “new sex toy” innovation might stop there, but Quitmeyer and Peer built the Electric Eel with an Arduino microcontroller. Instead of writing bland programs to alternate the Eel’s zapping frequency, Quitmeyer wants to include biometric sensors that’ll allow a range of inputs to the sex toy’s code. Below is Quitmeyer’s (SFW) demonstration of a crude biosensor hooked to the Eel that zaps with each intake of breath.
But by opening the Comingle repository with fellow PhD candidate Paul Clifton, Quitmeyer doesn’t just want to create the next generation of sex toys–he wants to inspire folks to create and iterate their own.
And it gets weirder still, when you learn this innovation story began with ants in a Panama jungle.
Robots In The Jungle
Quitmeyer began delving into robotics four years ago while taking classes for a Digital Media Master’s at Georgia Tech. A self-described polymath, Quitmeyer holds undergrad degrees in film and industrial engineering. In a sense, his Master’s experiments disrupted societal assumptions, often by grossing out or messing with folks on the street. His first piece, Ducks Feeding people, had an Arduino-powered giant duck head spew candy rewards to people feeding regular ducks in the park.
Quitmeyer got another request: A group of scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute needed a dynamic computer program to help them track ants in the jungles of Panama. He flew down to view their working conditions.