I'm not quite sure who is remotely interested in purchasing one, but the reports of a deadly VR headset being made are true. It's a (genius) piece of technology designed by the founder of Oculus, Palmer Luckey. He sold the company to Facebook for $2 Billion in 2014 and they now use his designs and virtual reality research as the base of its 'Metaverse'.
His announcement of his latest work -- the deadly VR headset -- dominated headlines as many were in disbelief. “The idea of tying your real life to your virtual avatar has always fascinated me – you instantly raise the stakes to the maximum level and force people to fundamentally rethink how they interact with the virtual world and the players inside it,” Luckey wrote in his now-viral blog post. “Only the threat of serious consequences can make a game feel real to you and every other person in the game”.
It certainly does raise the stakes. There's no denying that. But, the question is, does it raise them 'too high'? Even he has concerns. “There are a huge variety of failures that could occur and kill the user at the wrong time,” he wrote. “This is why I have not worked up the balls to actually use it myself”. An article from ARS Technica points to similar ideas in gaming-tech but nothing like this - nothing deadly, you know? This thing basically triggers an explosive charge once you die in a game. Luckey shares that it's got a ways to go before it's ready. It currently just sits on his desk.
“The bad news is that so far, I have only figured out the half that kills you,” he wrote. “The perfect-VR half of the equation is still many years out”. He shares that it uses “three explosive charge modules” which are tied to a “narrow-band photosensor that can detect when the screen flashes red at a specific frequency”.
“When an appropriate game-over screen is displayed, the charges fire, instantly destroying the brain of the user,” he said. Is it legal? Will it be available? We've done some digging to get some answers on episode 176.
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