This is some next-level ‘Black Mirror’ stuff.
Oculus headset founder Palmer Luckey recently made a startling announcement in his blog. Luckey said he created a VR headset that will kill its user in real life when they die in-game.
Luckey talked about his inspiration in a blog post. He said a fictional VR headset called “NerveGear” inspired his own lethal gaming apparatus. NerveGear may be familiar to fans of Sword Art Online. In the anime and light novel series, players use it to access a virtual world, not knowing NerveGear can kill them if they “die” in-game. Luckey’s brainchild takes this concept straight out of the series and into the real world.
“Tying your real life to your virtual avatar has always fascinated me. You raise the stakes to the maximum level and force people to rethink how they interact with the virtual world and its players. Only the threat of serious consequences can make a game feel real to you and every other person in the game,” Luckey explained.
However, he hit a roadblock when he realized he needed to connect the headset to heavy equipment for it to work. So he used three explosive charge modules he usually uses for a different project.
“I tied them to a narrow-band photosensor that can detect when the screen flashes red at a specific frequency, making game-over integration on the part of the developer very easy.” Simply put, the headset will destroy the user’s brain when a “game over” screen appears in-game.
The Oculus founder still has a long way to go
But don’t worry, because Luckey’s project has a long way to go. Luckey says, “The good news is that we are halfway to making a true NerveGear. The bad news is that so far, I have only figured out the half that kills you. The perfect-VR half of the equation is still many years out.”
He has big plans for his killer headset. He’s hoping to add an “anti-tamper mechanism” and other things. However, testing these features can lead to death, which is why he himself hasn’t tried them out yet.
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He ended his blog post by saying, “See you in the metaverse.”
Featured Image Daniella Sison
