The Metaverse has been touted as a place where people will be able to live out their fantasies – whether that’s fighting their enemies on a battlefield or going on a date with the woman of their dreams.
But for these experiences to be truly immersive, it’s not just about what you can see and hear in the metaverse, but also what you can feel.
Now scientists in Pennsylvania have revealed a steamy new technology that makes it possible to ‘kiss’ someone in the metaverse by sending life-like sensations to your lips, teeth and tongue.
The scientists have modified a virtual reality (VR) headset by fitting it with haptic technology, meaning it simulates touch by applying forces, vibrations and motions.
It uses a thin array of transducers integrated into the underside of the VR headset that direct ultrasound energy at different parts of the mouth.
As well as kissing sensations, the tech could be used to drink from a virtual water fountain or take a puff from a cigarette.
The prototype headset (pictured) uses a thin array of sensors integrated into the underside of a VR headset that direct ultrasound energy at different parts of the mouth
Importantly, the headset doesn’t require any equipment to be put up against or into a user’s mouth
The prototype headset, which is an adapted Oculus Quest 2, has been developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s Future Interfaces Group in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Importantly, the modified headset doesn’t require any equipment to be put up against or into a user’s mouth; instead, the components are rested above the nose.
According to the team, the mouth has been largely overlooked as a haptic target in VR and augmented reality (AR), despite being second in terms of sensitivity behind the fingertips.
Usually, haptic feedback applies vibrations to a person’s hands via controllers, often in video games to match the gameplay (such as feeling a vibration in FIFA when a football strikes the post).
‘Proximity of the mouth to the headset offers a significant opportunity to enable on- and in-mouth haptic effects, without needing to run wires or wear an extra accessory,’ the researchers say.
‘We developed a thin, compact, beamforming array of ultrasonic transducers, which can render haptic effects onto the mouth.
3D renderings show how the small ultrasonic transducers (the coloured spheres) direct energy (black sphere) towards the lips (red cylinder)
Here, a user of the prototype headset ‘drinks’ from a virtual water fountain, and feels the splash of the water against her lips
‘Importantly, all components are integrated into the headset, meaning the user does not need to wear an additional accessory, or place any external infrastructure in their room.’
The Future Interfaces Group has published a research paper detailing its creation, as well as a video showing the potential applications of haptic feedback to the mouth in various virtual scenarios.
For example, when playing a horror game in the metaverse, or just in VR generally, it could be used to stimulate the feel of a spider web brushing across the lips or feel pools of slime running into the mouth.
Other examples include bushing teeth, smoking cigarettes, feeling rain and wind, and drinking from cups of coffee or a water fountain.
Haptic technology that focuses on stimulating a variety of senses, other than simply just what we see, is seen as crucial to making the metaverse as life-like as possible by companies such as Meta (formerly known as Facebook).
The term ‘metaverse’, coined in the 1992 dystopian novel ‘Snow Crash’, is used to describe immersive, shared spaces accessed across different platforms where the physical and digital converge.
Mark Zuckerberg, who co-founded Facebook in his dormitory room at Harvard University in 2004, has described the metaverse as an ’embodied internet’.
Within years, Facebook users will be able to use the platform not on their phone or computer, but by donning a VR headset.
A puff from a cigarette could be virtually recreated in the metaverse by directing a persistent node of energy on the lips
Here, the user feels slime from a giant spider falling down her face in a game-like virtual setting
Rather than swiping the screen of a device, they could potentially meet up with a Facebook friend in a virtual shared space – like an ultra-realistic simulation of another planet or an idyllic garden – and vocally chat to each other’s avatars.
‘It’ll be characterised by social presence, the feeling that you’re right there with another person, no matter where in the world you happen to be,’ Meta says.
‘The metaverse is still a ways off, but parts of it are already here and even more are on the horizon.’
Meta renamed itself in October, as part of its long-term project to turn its social media platform into a metaverse.