Is Virtual Reality Dangerous? Will the Teslasuit Help?

With the Tesla-suit soon to be released to the public, Virtual Reality aficionados will now not only have an eye, ear and brain experience, but a whole body feast via haptic feedback to immerse almost every inch of your body into the environment.

How's that for "getting into the game"

But is virtual reality technology really safe? I am reminded of my Manny's (male live-in child caregiver) experience when he eagerly signed up to take part in a research study for new VR technology.

In 2010 my Manny volunteered for a virtual reality study in Kirkland, Washington. They were testing Virtual Reality gaming technology and its effects on players, and for two hours of your time twice a week for 6 weeks you would receive a $250 VISA gift card. It was explained he would wear a helmet attached to the ceiling by wires that would immerse him in the game, and he could move his physical body about the room a little and control in-game actions via handheld controllers. It was in a large and obstruction free area so he could walk and move fairly freely, there were three VR stations in the room but they were plenty far apart. He would play the VR game for 75 minutes and answer questions for 20-30 minutes after. His blood pressure and other vitals would be monitored before, during, and after the game.

He set it up for my days off for not only the monetary reward, but mainly for the sheer coolness factor. A huge tech head, he was super excited for Virtual Reality technology to be made available.

The night before the first study day, they called him to cancel, saying they will be in touch soon if he was still interested. Three weeks later he was set up again, but that too was canceled the morning he was getting ready to leave. Third time's the charm: 6 weeks later he took the Metro and called me not too long after, informing me that he would be home soon because there was something weird going on. I asked him how it was and he told me he would tell me when he got home.

Later that night he regaled us with his tale. He had stepped off the bus at the complex in Kirkland and made his way to the correct building. There were several ambulances and fire trucks by an entrance, and he watched a person thrashing on a gurney trying to break free from the strapped restraints, being loaded into a vehicle.

Police and EMT's were quietly huddled in groups of what appeared to be employees in the lobby. He was stopped just inside the door, and a wide eyed girl came up. He answered her inquiry as to why he was there and informed him that the study was closed, if they decided to do it again in the future they had his name.

He was never contacted. He would call them every so often to inquire, always getting a strange and faltering reason. One day he was told they will not be conducting the study at all and thanked him for his interest.

I was working in a local artisan retail boutique slash tattoo shop that catered to the tech geeks of Kirkland, Seattle's Silicon Valley. One of our clients was having work done about a year later and I overheard him talking about a disastrous virtual reality trial at his company the year before. He was transferred as an intern to the VR department but made them transfer him out a few months into it because it "weirded him out". Volunteers would be brought in to test the games but something always happened and they never came out of the correct doors, and there was a lot of talk how they would begin acting strange and were taken out of the building. The trials would immediately be put on hold and receptionist told to inform qualified applicants that they had to tweak the project and would call them when it was reopened. Questions directed at department heads and others directly involved were always excused away or ignored, and overall there was an eerie feeling that concerned him.

Of course this could all be coincidence, and there could be any number of explanations, but the timing was spot on.

Aside from these experiences, I have to wonder at the long-term mind and body effects of virtual reality. When you are walking in real life, your brain registers the eyes seeing the scenery go by and the feeling of your weight on your soles, the movement in your muscles, and the air moving across your face as you move through space. Your brain registers all this as "walking". In virtual reality, only the eyes see you walking through virtual space, your brain knows you are sitting still and is confused because of the mixed signals. Disorientation, nausea, dizziness, and other physical effects are reported due to the senses not aligning.

The Teslasuit aims to solve this problem by zapping your nerves with electrical impulses.

The Teslasuit will more fully immerse people in virtual environments by providing (almost) every inch of your body with haptic feedback. The haptic feedback system stimulates your nerves directly with electricity so you can “feel” things in the virtual world.

Teslasuit CEO Dimitri Mikhalchuk talks about the suit’s progress at CES 2018:

Basically you will be able to feel when you bump into something, or reach out to touch or punch something.

“Our electro-tactile haptic feedback system gives you the ability to touch and feel objects inside the virtual world,” says the project’s Kickstarter page.

What say you? Is virtual reality safe? Will the Teslasuit eradicate potential long term mental, emotional and psychological ramifications, or is it opening up a whole new can of virtual worms?

Images via Pexels and Teslasuit

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