You die in the game, you die in real life is a well-worn cliché used in a number of science fiction films that feature virtual reality. Characters in those movies are forced to play for their lives after becoming stuck in a computer game or digital simulation. They also perish if their avatar does.
The creator of virtual reality startup Oculus claims he is building a VR headgear that can truly kill the player who loses or gets "killed," in gaming slang, during a video game. This claim looks to be an elaborate, albeit cruel, prank.
Luckey, who made headlines in 2014 when he famously sold his company to Facebook for $3 billion, based his design on the well-known Japanese novel series Sword Art Online, in which players are confined in a massive, immersive VR combat simulator. The animation depicts players using the NerveGear headgear. In this, a crazy scientist who is the series' adversary imprisons all of the players in a virtual world dungeon with 100 floors.
In his blog, Luckey stated that "if you die in the game, you die in real life." Luckey describes the envisioned plan for his deadly new device in his blog post:
“I used three of the explosive charge modules I usually use for a different project, tying 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. When an appropriate game-over screen is displayed, the charges fire, instantly destroying the brain of the user.”
Palmer also intends to develop an anti-tamper device that will make the VR headgear impossible to remove or destroy in order to secure the users' safety. However, trying it on oneself is still highly risky because there is a great likelihood that something may go wrong and endanger or even kill the user at the wrong time.
Don't worry if this gets you stressed out and afraid to even approach your current VR headpieces. As this lethal killing machine is still in the research and development phase, take a deep breath.
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.”
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