Everything seems to indicate that VR has reached a new level: the founder of Oculus claims that a virtual reality headset is capable of killing its users if they lose a video game. Palmer Luckey made this claim a few days ago, and although it's just a joke, it's still striking. So, below you'll find out why he says this.
The New Virtual Reality Headset Capable of Killing
The founder of virtual reality (VR) company Oculus claims he has designed a new headset that can kill you in real life if you die in a game.
This was stated by Palmer Luckey about his device, which was inspired by Sword Art Online, a Japanese novel series turned anime in which players are trapped in an online role-playing game where death in the game means death in the real world due to a murderer.
To better understand this curious phrase, it's important to review who actually said it. Luckey launched Oculus in 2012, before selling this innovative virtual reality headset to Facebook for $2 billion in 2014.
During his time at the helm, he created the Oculus Rift and other virtual reality technologies that now underpin Facebook's big push into the metaverse: an alternative world where you can work, play, and meet people without leaving home.
On this point, Luckey stated: “The idea of linking your real life to your virtual avatar has always fascinated me: you instantly raise the stakes to the highest level and force people to fundamentally rethink how they interact with the virtual world and the players who inhabit it.”
The most realistic VR headset in history
Luckey, who left Oculus in 2017 and founded Anduril Industries, detailed that he was working on a real-life version of NerveGear and was halfway there.
On this, he expressed that "The bad news is that so far I have only discovered the half that kills you, the other half of the virtual reality equation is still many years away."
Luckey said the VR headset is connected to "three explosive charge modules" that are linked to a "narrowband photosensor that can detect when the screen flashes red at a specific frequency." We'll have to wait for the final version to learn more details.
This isn't the first time that extreme attempts have been made to merge reality with the digital world. In 2001, an art installation called PainStation in Germany threatened players who lost a game of Pong (one of the most famous video games in history) with "sensations such as heat, blows, and electric shocks of varying duration."
Of course, beyond the eccentricity, we don't believe anything so extreme that it will literally kill you from losing will ever exist. But what is certain is that VR headsets continue to go further and further.