• News
  • Film and TV
  • Music
  • Tech
  • Features
  • Celebrity
  • Politics
  • Weird
  • Community
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content
Oculus creator invents virtual reality headset that intentionally kills people

Home> Technology

Updated 10:43 8 Nov 2022 GMTPublished 09:55 8 Nov 2022 GMT

Oculus creator invents virtual reality headset that intentionally kills people

Palmer Luckey says his device would 'instantly destroy the brain of the user'

Dominic Smithers

Dominic Smithers

Video games are getting more and more realistic with each passing year, but things may have finally gone too far.

Palmer Luckey is the creator of Oculus, a virtual reality headset that allows gamers to immerse themselves in their video games.

However, the tech head has now gone a step further in trying to build a VR device that could kill the user.

Advert

The idea behind 'NerveGear', as it's been named, is to link a player's virtual experience to their real life, meaning that if they die in the game they are playing, they die in the real world too.

The device, which was inspired by the anime Sword Art Online, in which thousands of gamers get stuck in a VR world, works by spotting when a player has died in the game, detecting a shade of red that appears.

Then, once the 'game over' screen appears, three modules explode, 'instantly destroying the brain of the user'.

Think I'm ok, thanks.

Advert

Palmer Luckey is building a VR headset that could kill players.
sakkmesterke/Alamy

But Luckey says the device is not near completion yet, and he will still need a few more years to get it absolutely right, with his end goal to create a device that perfectly aligns a player's online experience with the real world.

He writes in his blog: "You want NerveGear, the incredible device that perfectly recreates reality using a direct neural interface that is also capable of killing the user.

"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.

Advert

"This is an area of video game mechanics that has never been explored, despite the long history of real-world sports revolving around similar stakes."

Adding: "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."

At the moment, it remains a 'piece of office art'.
Igor Stevanovic/Alamy

Obviously, Luckey has some concerns over the device, namely that it could accidentally kill the user at the wrong time - which would be less than ideal, and is why it is currently just a 'piece of office art'.

Advert

He says: "This isn’t a perfect system, of course. I have plans for an anti-tamper mechanism that, like the NerveGear, will make it impossible to remove or destroy the headset.

"Even so, there are a huge variety of failures that could occur and kill the user at the wrong time.

"This is why I have not worked up the balls to actually use it myself, and also why I am convinced that, like in SAO, the final triggering should really be tied to a high-intelligence agent that can readily determine if conditions for termination are actually correct."

Adding: "At this point, it is just a piece of office art, a thought-provoking reminder of unexplored avenues in game design.

Advert

"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."

Featured Image Credit: Palmer Luckey / Jozef Polc / Alamy

Topics: Gaming, Technology, Science, Virtual Reality

Dominic Smithers
Dominic Smithers

Dominic Smithers is the News/Agenda Desk Lead, covering the latest trends and breaking stories. After graduating from the University of Leeds with a degree in French and History, he went on to write for the Manchester Evening News, the Accrington Observer and the Macclesfield Express. So as you can imagine, he’s spent many a night wondering just how useful that second language has been. But c'est la vie.

X

@SmithersDom

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

3 hours ago
a day ago
2 days ago
  • 3 hours ago

    People are only just realizing what the 'G' stands for in 5G and it's not what you might think

    5G is used by over 1.5 billion every day, but what does the 'G' actually stand for?

    Technology
  • a day ago

    NASA explains stunning Earth phenomenon captured from ISS that looks like something from a movie

    ISS astronaut Nichole Ayers shared the incredible moment on Twitter

    Technology
  • a day ago

    Scientists make ground breaking discovery on new organism that gives a new perspective of life

    Experts accidentally came across the microbe while researching marine life

    Technology
  • 2 days ago

    Scientist issues warning the shortest day in history will happen in weeks as Earth's rotation is speeding up

    Graham Jones, an astrophysicist at the University of London, predicted when it will shorten our days

    Technology
  • Conjoined twins have been successfully separated following groundbreaking 14-hour surgery using virtual reality
  • Physics professor claims we are all 'characters living in a simulation' and says he has the science to prove it
  • People are just finding out the grim fate of most people who had their body cryogenically frozen in labs
  • Nintendo shares first look at the Switch 2 and it has people pointing out the same thing