Immersive virtual reality experiences are great, especially when you have some form of control over the environment you're in (like in our review of the RevolVR Dominator), but its hard to become fully immersed if there is no sense of risk. Well, thanks to a new Korean invention, VR could soon become full of risk - and even pain - due to ThermoReal technology.
As reported on by Engadget, the ThermoReal is a type of user interface which can change temperature very quickly. It can be embedded in game controllers, joysticks, and simple hand-held devices to produce temperature variances between 4 and 40 degrees Celsius. It can alter temperature so quickly in fact, and produce multiple areas on the same device with vastly different temperatures, that it can be painful to hold. So if you're playing a game and you get hit, the controller won't just vibrate, it'll actually hurt you.
Right now ThermoReal is looking for a manufacturer to team up with to install the technology in their products. If they do, very soon you could be getting hurt in your video games for real, which would certainly add a new dimension of game play, wouldn't it?
