When you're playing video games you know what you're not doing? Getting better at sex. Now physicist and game designer Tom Chen has found a way to allow female gamers to do both of these things at once.
Introducing the Smart Kegel Exercise Aid - or SKEA for short. This device is a gaming peripheral designed to be inserted into a woman's vagina so she can exercise her pelvic floor muscles.
And what's the benefit of that you ask? There's a few of them. The primary benefit is that it helps with urinary incontinence. The more entertaining reason is that it improves sex.
"Pelvic muscles contribute to healthy sexual response for women," Chen explained in the
SKEA Kickstarter. "Strong pelvic floor muscles can enhance arousal and improve sensation, orgasm quality, and general sexual experience. Men also prefer his female partner to have stronger pelvic muscles, due to stronger contact forces and grip during the course."
Furthermore, having strong Kegel muscles helps with childbirth. Both during the actual process and the inevitable healing afterward.
WebMD verifies these benefits. "Kegel exercises aren't just good for improving urinary incontinence. They are often recommended in sex therapy," the WebMD listing noted. "That was an accidental 'side effect' discovered by Kegel. He heard back from his patients about these sexual benefits. The pelvic floor muscles contract more strongly during orgasm once they are strengthened."
So here's how SKEA works: it's designed to be used in conjunction with a Temple Run-style autorunner mobile game called Alice in Continent, in which the titular character chases rabbits, avoids "lava leaks" and collects "Collagen elixers". As you'd expect, you make Alice jump by squeezing on the SKEA with your pelvic muscles.
That sounds boring by video game standards, but entertaining compared to usual pelvic floor muscle exercises. "Traditional Kegel exercise is long and boring. Most patients fail to complete on their own," Chen noted. "Skea offers an interesting alternative treatment, which could be more fun and acceptable.”
SKEA has currently raised $5,054 towards its $38,000 goal with 15 days to go before its 14th August deadline.
