The intention of the Meta corporation to create a metaverse every week seems less and less something crazy and unrealizable. And this time, the aforementioned tech giant has decided to fully launch its new Personal Boundary feature in its Horizon Worlds and Horizon Venues virtual reality spaces. But what exactly is the new functionality intended for? The answer is simple – to combat harassment in virtual reality.
And if you go into details, then within the framework of the new functionality, absolutely every avatar will have a bubble, whose radius is 0.6 virtual meters, which in turn will be a kind of invisible wall, due to which two virtual avatars will not be able to be closer to each other 1.2 meters. Well, in the very case, if someone still tries to penetrate your personal space, then his movement in your direction will simply be stopped at the moment when the other person comes too close.
And by the way, an equally important point is that, according to the official statement of Meta itself, even with the Personal Boundary function activated, user avatars will still be able to walk past each other, so users will not encounter a problem when someone is stuck in a corner or doorway. But yes, one should also note one, for some, somewhat negative point, which is that users will not be able to turn off the Personal Boundary feature if they wish. Either way, a very important aspect of it is that it builds on previous measures Meta added to combat harassment in virtual spaces, such as the disappearance of an avatar’s hands when they enter someone’s personal space.
Shortly before Meta opened Horizon Worlds to anyone aged 18 and over in the US and Canada last December, a female beta tester claimed that her digital avatar had been groped by a stranger. Anyway, don’t assume that with the advent of Personal Boundary, you can no longer, for example, perform a “signature friendly greeting” with your friend due to the inability to get closer. If necessary, you can change the radius of your personal border. And of course, users, even with the Personal Boundary, will still be able to high-five and hit the fists of other avatars, but for this they need to extend their arms.
