Tokyo gamers slapped down for virtual groping

Virtual reality got a little too real at the Tokyo Game Show on Friday when gamers lined up at one exhibition and got touchy-feely with a mannequin that with VR goggles transformed into a female anime character.

The show's organizer told software developer M2 Co. to stop visitors fondling the dummy's breasts, which with built-in sensors prompted the anime image in the goggles to move.

The hands-on display was meant to demonstrate technology to turn flat pictures into 3D images.

"I feel as though I have seen the future," said an excited programmer, Hiroyasu Ando, 24, who tried the VR game before the touching ban was imposed.

"It's going to be possible to fall in love with a virtual girl."

The annual gaming showcase was dominated this year by VR goggles from the likes of Sony Corp and new software for immersive technology. Although scantily clad women greeted visitors at many of the booths, exhibitors on the whole stuck to family-rated content.

M2 nonetheless showed that other, racier and potentially more profitable applications for VR exist, with the adult entertainment industry usually quick to adopt to new ways to distribute its content.

(Reporting by Kwiyeon Ha; Writing by Tim Kelly; Editing by Nick Macfie)