MOSCOW – A middle-aged man from Russia was found dead in his apartment this week from what is believed to be the first VR-related death.
As the Russian news agency TASS reports, the 44-year-old Moscow resident tripped and fell into a glass table while wearing a virtual reality headset.
Yulia Ivanova, Senior Assistant to the Head of the Russian Investigative Committee’s Main Moscow Department, explained the situation to TASS without much further detail. “According to preliminary information, while moving around the apartment in virtual reality glasses, the man tripped and crashed into a glass table, suffered wounds and died on the spot from a loss of blood.”
The investigation into the death continues.
There are no available specifics on what kind of headset the man was wearing, but what’s for sure is that it’s important to keep a play space open and safe when gaming in VR.
Most devices instruct players to have at least 3 feet cleared around them at most times, but sometimes more for games that are made to use the entire room space. ‘Room-scale’ VR games usually require about 9 feet of open space in every direction, meaning that any furniture in the room should be cleared out or pushed to the walls.
This news first popped up on Reddit.
