This man survived 2 days in virtual reality by living off liquid food and anti-laxatives

Business Insider

With the help of his friend Sara Lisa Vogl, the co-designer of a virtual reality experience called "Lucid Trips," Wiedemann spent two days immersed in various virtual worlds and environments while wearing HTC's Vive headset and a bright pink onesie.

To survive the performance, Wiedemann ate "special liquid food" made of chocolate and bananas, as well as a medication to prevent him from needing to go to the bathroom. In all, he spent just 2.5 hours asleep with the headset on, and he spent the rest of his 48 hours going through games and demos in virtual reality.

Surprisingly, Wiedemann said he had no physical issues after his grueling stay in VR. He apparently experienced a mild panic attack roughly 25 hours into the experiment, and he almost gave up, but Wiedemann persevered and saw the project to completion.

"I had no physical problems, no burning eyes, killing headaches or nausea," Wiedemann told Vice after his marathon concluded.

Nausea and dizziness are two common issues people report while wearing virtual reality headsets, but HTC's Vive headset is very good at delivering VR with low latency (a.k.a. "lag") to reduce any feelings of light-headedness. Most people won't spend more than a few hours at a time in virtual reality, but Wiedemann hoped the experiment would serve as a preview for what life might be like in the future, if people were to spend most of their waking hours in various virtual environments. In the end, Wiedemann called it more of a "controlled drug experience."

If you want to see what the performance was like, the Game Science Center in Berlin uploaded 12 hours of footage to YouTube (embedded below).