This is research that stirs the virtual reality community. In the spring, during the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, researchers from Télécom Paris and the University of Glasgow, in the United Kingdom, presented an original article in which they expose several methods of deliberate and malicious misappropriation of virtual reality (VR) tools. Objective of the authors: to demonstrate that it is possible to use existing technologies in order to physically injure a VR user.
More specifically, the methods highlighted in the article exploit well-known techniques, used in certain situations in virtual reality, which make it possible to manipulate the perception of the user. These tricks to trick the brain are normally used for the purpose of providing a better experience in VR. “For example, if the user is in a room of four meters by four meters but we want to give him the impression that he is moving in a room of ten meters by ten meters, we can redirect his walk, explains Jean-Louis Vercher, neuroscience researcher at the CNRS. To do this, when the user starts moving, the scene he sees in the VR headset is slightly rotated: he will have the impression of not going straight, and this will push him to correct his direction. » In this way, the user will have the illusion that he is moving in a straight line over more than four meters… Whereas in reality he is going around in circles!
An impressive method of efficiency to overcome the limitations of real space. But which, in the wrong hands, can be very dangerous. In the article, the authors thus present a scenario where a malicious individual uses this gait redirection technique to push the user towards a staircase or an obstacle, without their knowledge – or hit a passer-by thinking of attacking a virtual zombie…
Progressive democratization
Such possibilities of malicious diversion arouse interest, in a context where virtual reality devices are gradually becoming more democratic. For the time being, these tools are mainly reserved for niche uses – in medicine for functional rehabilitation or the treatment of phobias for example, or even for the training of certain top athletes. But large companies, at the head of which we find Meta, promise a massive deployment of these technologies, in particular with the announced advent of the metaverse.
You have 48.16% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.