Meta announced, this Friday (4), the launch of the Personal Boundary (Personal Boundaries) for virtual communities of Horizon Worlds and Horizon Venues. The tool limits the approximation between the metaverse avatars, imposing a standard distance of 4 feet (about 1 meter and 20 centimeters).
The action aims to avoid, or at least hinder, the cases of harassment that have already been recorded in the metaverse. According to the holding company that owns Facebook, the idea is to create a private space and facilitate the prevention of unwanted interactions with other people.
“A Personal Boundary prevents someone from invading your avatar’s personal space. If someone tries to enter your Personal Boundary, the system stops forward movement when it reaches the limit,” he explained.
Image shows how social distancing will work in the metaverse
The company explained that there is no tactile feedback to control the approach limit and therefore people will not feel it, that is, there will be no kind of invisible barrier. The new rules build on previous tools that block hand movements that were made too close to another person.
New limit as default
Personal Boundary will be used as a default and will not need to be manually configured. “We think this will help set behavioral norms — and this is important for a relatively new medium like VR. [Realidade Virtual]. In the future, we will explore the possibility of adding new controls and UI changes, such as allowing people to customize the size of their personal limits.”
With the new rule, colleagues who want to give a high five or bang their fists will have to stretch their arms, for example. Personal Boundary is available starting today in Horizon Worlds and Horizon Venues, two of the top virtual interaction environments today.
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