They create a mask that simulates the feeling of suffocation in virtual reality
Since its creation, virtual reality has been implemented in different areas: games, education, medicine, tourism, entertainment and video games.
It has been in the latter area where this technology has gained great popularity thanks to the immersive experience for the player.
However, there are people who seek to take advantage of the characteristics that virtual reality has to carry out controversial projectslike the one we bring in this post.
It is a simulation created by a group of researchers from the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences in Austriain which the experience of suffocate in a fire.
It is worth mentioning that this is not the first time that those involved in this idea look for new ways to generate simulations that recreate horrible experiences lived in reality.
The details of this work have been described in an article published on the occasion of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
How does the choking simulator work?
designated by the name of AirRes Maskthis device has been designed so that it can be used with a VR headset like Meta Quest 2thus allowing the user’s breathing to be involved in the virtual experience.
As for its operation, this mask offers two uses. The first one as a mechanism to control breathing and provide a greater sense of immersion within a virtual reality experience that involves performing tasks such as blowing out a virtual candle, playing a wind instrument or blowing up a balloon.
The other use given to this mask would be to influence the direction taken by the virtual experience depending on the intensity and variations manifested in the user’s breathing.
As for the choking simulation, the team notes that this could be used as a method of firefighter training in the sense of making them physically experience the lack of oxygen within a burning structure.
Such would be the immersion in this context that those involved would even feel the beginning of the tunnel visionbut without the fatality involved in the risk of an accident like this in real life.
Also, the AirMask could be used in flight simulators to replicate the variations experienced in breathing during the incidence of g-forces in high-speed maneuvers.
