Latest sex gizmos turn gameplay into foreplay

Welcome to the next generation of sex toys.

Take the Limon, a sleek lemon-shaped vibrator that could be sold at the gift shop of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Released this month by Minna Life, it is billed as a "couples' vibrator" that can record and customise intensity levels.

Or consider RealTouch, a USB-connected sex toy said to have been designed by a former Nasa engineer that promises "interactive sex" with another person over the internet. For the pleasure seeker, stimulation is rendered in a series of 1's and 0's.

A similar but more reciprocal-minded device comes from LovePalz, a Taiwan company that bills itself as offering "the world's best interactive toys for internet love". Unlike RealTouch, it is wireless, which has its obvious advantages, and comes with hubristic-sounding names that may be a tad hard to live up to: Zeus (for him) and Hera (for her). It features something called responsive "air pump" technology.

Big-name corporations have also joined the hi-tech sex party. Durex, the condom manufacturer, is experimenting with a novelty product called Fundawear, a pair of his/her underpants with vibrating nodes that can be remotely activated by an iPhone.

But while the hi-tech gizmos get the most attention, it's really the person-to-person technologies that just extend our sexual reach that remain the most popular (see apps like Grindr and Tinder).