One of the founders of Oculus, Palmer Luckey, has just designed a new VR headset that can quite literally take your life if you die in-game. This VR headset design is clearly inspired by the popular anime SAO (Sword Art Online).
For those unaware, Palmer is no longer a part of the brand he founded and the company is now owned by Facebook’s parent company Meta. However, it appears that the Oculus Rift designer is still working on VR headsets. Luckey just recently modified a Meta Quest Pro VR headset, which quite literally has an explosive twist. This model is a prototype, which has an explosive attached to it. This can kill the wearer once he fails or dies in-game.
The device was inspired by an iconic anime and manga, which featured the NerveGear headset. The series in question is Sword Art Online, in which the VR headset was rigged to blow up when the wearer dies in the virtual reality game. Luckey unveiled the invention on his blog to commemorate Sword Art Online Day, which is held on 6th November. This is the day the in the manga and anime universe where 10,000 players were trapped inside the titular Sword Art Online VR MMORPG.
Looking at his post, Luckey showed that the SAO and Oculus shared a symbiotic relationship. Furthermore, he also began the Kickstarted for the Oculus Rift DK1 around the same time as the fourth episode of the anime that was airing in Japan. This show had reignited the public’s interest in VR and the NerveGear technology (depicted realistic simulations) helped people visualize the future of VR technology in reality.
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