Central Saint Martins graduate Marta Dunjó has developed a sex toy-cum-virtual reality kit that she believes could help rehabilitate those with "extreme sexual fantasies".
Dunjó, a student on the Materials Future course at Central Saint Martins, got the idea for her conceptual graduate project after hearing about the use of virtual reality in the pornography industry.
Her research led her to statistics relating to the way hardcore pornographic imagery "normalises" sexually deviant behaviour and she began to question how the implementation of virtual reality could better or worsen the issue.
"Early research in VR proves that there are certain experiences that have an impact on the human psyche, so through my project, I wanted to understand what would be the impact in our society of accessing certain extreme sexual fantasies in VR – in this case, rape," she told Dezeen.
"I wanted to know if VR will just become another way of experiencing and exploring sex and act as an outlet for certain sexual drives, or if it might become a trigger for these acts in reality."
As part of the project, Dunjó created three objects to accompany a VR headset, named Thuom, Suna and Avigan.
Each of the three objects, made from shiny black plastic and rubber, are based on the three orifices by which the UK Law defines the act of rape.
"I focused more on the objects that would facilitate the rape experience in VR rather than the experience itself," said the designer. "My idea is that these objects would be connected to a VR headset through which the users would see and hear the experience, but the objects would complete it through the sense of touch."
While the project is conceptual, Dunjó anticipates this type of equipment is something that will appear in the very near future, and it is the "moral dilemma" that will come with these products that she thinks should be discussed.
"It's relevant to predict these scenarios before they take place in our society," she said.
"If current hardcore pornography were to move into a virtual domain tomorrow, what would be the impact on society? Would deviant sexual behaviour be encouraged or would it simply just become a mechanism to explore and entertain sexual fantasies that are illegal and immoral in the virtual world?"
While Dunjó is concerned there hasn't been enough talk about virtual reality in relation to sex, its potential role in architecture and design as a whole has been much discussed, with visualisation artist Olivier Demangel of IVR Nation saying that the technology would become "more powerful than cocaine".
As the technology is continuously developing, designers have envisioned everything from hooded sweatshirts to sculptural helmets as means to immerse the wearer in virtual worlds.