Pornography has a habit of helping to kickstart new technologies and push them into the mainstream. The adult entertainment industry is widely cited as the reason VHS video tapes became a success, while the technologically superior Betamax withered and died.

It was the same story with Blu-ray's triumph over HD-DVD, and in the early days of the World Wide Web it was porn which drove the majority of traffic. When virtual reality leapt onto the scene, once again it was pornography which helped with sales of headsets like the Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR.

Advertisement:

Now, just a few short years after VR porn broke new ground, it's time for augmented reality to step into the spotlight. Just like other, more PG-rated AR apps, the experience appears primitive for now — especially from the latest AR porn platform to market its wares on the scene, called 3D HoloGirlfriend.

Putting the name aside, this application is claiming to work on the Microsoft HoloLens, Meta 2 and even the mysterious Magic Leap headset which is due on sale later this year. These are all high-end, industry-focused devices which are expensive (HoloLens costs from $3,000), bulky (HoloLens weighs 1.28 lb) and primarily designed for graphics designers, architects, engineers and other industries altogether more serious than porn.

But where porn goes, money and innovation follow. Adult entertainment companies were among the first to experiment with Google Glass for shooting first-person video, and with VR rigs made from several GoPro cameras bolted together to shoot 180-degree video for VR headsets. High Definition, 3D and Ultra HD were also adopted quickly by the porn industry, long before television broadcasters took notice.

Advertisement:

It was only two years ago when US adult entertainment company Naughty America showed off its VR content for the first time, promptly followed by many other production companies following suit. Now, according to data produced by VRPorn.com, 30 of the top 50 virtual reality websites are adult entertainment; furthermore, these sites are ranked number one, three and four in overall VR site rankings.

According to the same data, traffic to VR porn sites increased by 50 percent between June and August 2017.