Since October last year, when Facebook (the company) changed its name to Meta, we’ve talked a lot about its long-term commitment. MetaversAnd its closest version, virtual reality: the digital world in which we repeat – with changes – what we do outside of it, while avoiding the constraints imposed by the physical world. Now development can solve one of its biggest challenges: Kiss simulation

Part Virtual reality It is already quite developed and can be used on a daily basis: over the years we have had glasses that allow us to see the digital world as an environment around us, to navigate and interact with it, in general, remotely. Of different sophistication. Meta even has gloves in the process of processing to simulate (physical) contact with a digital object, just like the HaptX firm. There are even costumes that allow you to feel the simulated impact on the body (for example, in a fighting game) or even pain-like.

But what has historically been incomprehensible when it comes to simulating its existence is the contact of something with the lips; The person is in a very sensitive place (theoretically, more than the fingertips), so any permanent fictitious addition to the virtual reality headset can be annoying, a very artificial feeling, and produce the opposite effect desired.

The good news is that a group of Carnegie Mellon University researchers in the United States seem to have found a solution: they have assembled a number of Small speakers under virtual reality glasses, And adapt them to generate ultrasonic waves, according to Gizmodo. To lie Ultrasound It is that it is composed of sound waves with a frequency which the human ear cannot perceive, but which carries great energy and very direction; Enough for me to do Localized pressure on the skin of the lips, Or facial area around the mouth. It can even cause pressure on the teeth or the tip of the tongue if the mouth is open.

Adapters installed in virtual reality glasses can also Simulate the flow of water flowing through the skin of wearing glassesOr contact with a spider web on a virtual forest road.

The design is currently a prototype and requires someone to program this part of the generated sensations through software, but researchers warn that the hardware used is standard, so the cost of creating an accessory of this style will be relatively small. .