The first ever killer virtual reality headset is here.
Palmer Luckey, a leader in virtual reality and the founder of Oculus, better known now as a part of Facebook’s Meta, created a VR headset that will actually kill the user if they die in the game, Vice’s Motherboard reported.
Players put on a NeveGear virtual reality headset and open the new game called Sword Art Online, which is based on the Japanese anime and novel of the same name. The players must fight their way through a 100-floor dungeon to escape a mad scientist’s virtual world.
The device is connected to three explosive charge modules above the screen that are aimed at the players forehead. Should the player die in the game, the microwave emitter would go off, obliterating the human’s head.
Luckey, who also founded Anduril, a weapons and defense contractor that has won large contracts with the government, said the explosive charges on the headset are ones he usually uses in “different projects,” although he did not specify which ones.
“When an appropriate game-over screen is displayed, the charges fire, instantly destroying the brain of the user,” Luckey wrote on his blog on Monday.
According to Luckey, the device’s creator “was able to hide from his employees, regulators, and contract manufacturing partners. I am a pretty smart guy, but I couldn’t come up with any way to make anything like this work, not without attaching the headset to gigantic pieces of equipment.”
But worry not, the headset is not available to buy.
“At this point, it is just a piece of office art, a thought-provoking reminder of unexplored avenues in game design,” Luckey said. “It is also, as far as I know, the first non-fiction example of a VR device that can actually kill the user. It won’t be the last.”
The creator said he wants to keep playing around with the technology used in killer headsets, mentioning the idea of an anti-tampering one that wouldn’t be able to be removed or destroyed.
However, testing that out could result in death.
“This is why I have not worked up the balls to actually use it myself,” Luckey admitted.