As virtual reality becomes more and more accessible to the everyday consumer, the debate over the potential benefits and risks of this new technology has become an increasingly popular topic. While many have argued that VR has many practical applications in business and education, others have expressed fear over the short and long-term side effects that VR technology could have on the physical and mental health of those who use it extensively.

Recently, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University's Future Interfaces Group have augmented the Meta Quest 2 (formerly Oculus Quest 2) headset in a way that adds a virtual sense of touch to the lips and mouths of users. While this new development is sure to excite many VR enthusiasts, one of the examples that the researchers used to demonstrate the new technology was to make the wearer feel spiders crawling in and out of their mouth.

RELATED: PlayStation VR 2 Could Be Better Than the Meta Quest 2

VR Bike Road

As explained by IFLScience, the team at Carnegie Mellon has invented a way to stimulate the human mouth's sense of touch by outfitting a Meta Quest 2 with a series of ultrasonic transducers, devices that produce waves of acoustic energy at specific frequencies and angles. By projecting these waves onto the mouth and chin areas, the transducers activate sensory cells, producing the sensation that those areas are being touched. Through this method, the Quest 2 can simulate a variety of haptics through altered frequencies.

To demonstrate how the ultrasonic transducers work, the team created a series of demos and had various test users make their way through them. While some demos shown were rather pleasant, simulating the experience of drinking water from a fountain or the feeling of the wind on your face as you bike down an open country road, the first demo shown was outright terrifying. Here, the user had to walk through a dark and dreary forest in the dead of night, brushing past thick spider webs as the ultrasonic transducers caressed their face. Soon after, an irate spider leaped onto the user's face, and their reaction to the ultrasonic transducers replicating the feeling of the spider's attempt to force its way into the user's mouth made it clear that the experience was real enough to them.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the demo then pitted the user against an even bigger spider, forcing them to blow the large arachnid to bits with a conveniently placed flare gun. While this final victory may seem cathartic for some arachnophobes, the user's victory came at the cost of being splashed by a spray of spider guts. To end things off, the player found themselves walking beneath the drooling maw of a gargantuan spider, with the hungry arthropod's saliva dripping down their face as it readied itself for its next meal.

RELATED: Meta Quest 2022: The Biggest Announcements from the Showcase

VR Spider

While this particular demo would be sure to give some users nightmares, the Future Interface Group's revolutionary work takes VR to a whole new level and offers some insight into what the future of VR might look and feel like. While the new technology is nowhere near finished, the team expressed interest in incorporating the ultrasound transducers into consumer virtual reality devices. No doubt that the integration of haptics opens up many exciting, yet potentially horrifying possibilities for future VR experiences.

The more pleasing demos demonstrate how simulated touch could be used to create relaxing and therapeutic experiences and improve already-existing soothing and atmospheric games like theBlue. In turn, this new capability could also be integrated into VR horror games like Resident Evil 4 and Five Nights at Freddy's VR: Help Wanted. With VR being increasingly incorporated into social media, the ultrasonic transducers could even be used to enhance the immersion of online meetings.

There are sure to be some who may feel unnerved by the Future Inference Group's enhancements to the Quest 2. However, they seem to prove that touch can be used to enhance the VR experience. As long as the various VR products that incorporate touch-based technology make it clear what the user is in for, haptics will be the future of VR.