Like Regular Reality, Only a Lot Less Troubling

The world is a difficult place; there are just way too many things to worry about, from saving the environment to staying politically engaged, to maintaining bodily functions through eating food and drinking water. Why bother with all that when you can escape to a digital virtual reality? Enter frog design, with their concept for a digital facemask that goes far beyond Virtual Boy ever did:

We don’t wish to make any prophecies – but if we fail to do more to mitigate today’s cultural, climatic, and economic dangers, the future may not be a pleasant one. Natural disasters will become more frequent, society more stratified, diplomacy more volatile.

Technology can be used to combat this dangerous new environment – but also to escape from it. We already use mobile devices to provide on-demand escapism, channeling movies, music, and other distractions. Increased processing power and emerging technologies will enable holistic computing systems to be stored in wearable devices, providing a more immersive personal media experience. In a troubling future, these augmented reality devices would offer a new dimension – a virtual layer that could be used to “re-skin” the troubling outside world. A boundary between the wearer and the world around him, the device would become a sort of visual drug, used to make the world appear a better place – even if just for a moment.

The device itself acts as a mask between the user and the outside world, expressing the internality of the human-device interaction. It offers a physical distinction between those moving in the real world and those who are “plugged in” to their private dimensions, the world as they wish to see it.

Link – via Boingboing