Military contractor and founder of Oculus Palmer Fortuna announced this week a project that appears to be exiting the series Black mirror: has designed a virtual reality viewer that, through “explosive charge modules”Power kill users in real life lose a game.
“If you die in the game, you die in real life”said Luckey, a tech “wizard boy” who turned 30 last September and broke into the world of virtual reality innovation ten years ago with his first headset, the Oculus Rift.
Luckey, a billionaire who also co-founded autonomy-focused defense technology company Anduril Industries, dubbed the prototype NerveGear.
“The idea of connect real life to your virtual avatar has always fascinated me: you immediately raise the stakes to the highest level and force people to fundamentally rethink how they interact with the virtual world and the players within it, “he blogged on the device.
He added that while top-notch graphics can make the game a more realistic experience, “only the threat of dire consequences can make a game seem real and for all the other people in it ”.
This headset is a tribute to NerveGear, the killer viewer from the manga series “Sword Art Online”, who microwaves opponents’ brains if they can’t escape a game where they are trapped by a deranged scientist.
Instead of using Sword Art Online’s lethal microwave system, the designer opted for a much more direct solution: paired three powerful explosive charges which can tear the player apart.
Apparently the equipment would have activated during detection a red flash on the screen at a certain frequency, making it easy to integrate into any video game.
“When a correct game over screen appears, charged with fire and instantly destroy the user’s brain”, He detailed and said so did not dare to try headphones because they are still “very volatile”.
Many consider Luckey the father of modern virtual realitywhen he sold his invention to Mark Zuckerberg for $ 2 billion in 2014, paving the way for the company to move to technology and rename itself as Objective.
“The popularity of Sword Art Online has led to enormous otaku enthusiasm for Oculus, especially in Japan, which has quickly become our second largest market,” he wrote.
Nervegear, a killer device
He added that the release of Rift made the series itself “much more plausible” and joked that the “killer” part of the device already works, but The VR component still needs work.
“The good news is we’re halfway to making a true NerveGear,” he wrote. “The bad news is that, so far, I’ve only discovered half that kills you. The perfect half of the equation in virtual reality is still many years away. “
The virtual reality genius seems to be disconnected from reality. He has called his design “an office work of art”, implying that he intends to try it out when he understands the “other half”.
“It’s a reminder that stimulating of unexplored paths in game design”Wrote Luckey.
“It is also, as far as I know, the first example of non-fiction of a virtual reality device that can actually kill the user. It won’t be the last“.
SL
Source: Clarin
