Afake viral marketing campaign for Azana Bands – a sensory VR peripheral that can make you feel pain – is scaring some parents who thought it was real.
Azana Bands VR peripheral will let you experience the game – even pain
The viral marketing campaign has gained a lot of traction. There is no mention in the advert that it is actually for a science fiction show that will be aired on Channel 4 later this year – it just looks like it is an advert for a sensory VR peripheral. The advert says that is can make you feel happiness, fear and pain without consequence. Check out the video below for the Azana Bands advert.
To make it more convincing, they recruited YouTube channels to do an unboxing and testing of the Azana Bands. For example, this one from Hat Films:
They also setup a website for Azana Bands. There is one section of that site which reveals that it’s an advert for an upcoming science-fiction show for Channel 4 called Kiss Me First. However, it seems that many people did not discover this, as many complaints and queries were submitted by concerned parents who viewed the ad. Kiss Me First looks like it’ll be a decent science fiction show. It reminds me a bit of Black Mirror.

So, if a sensory peripheral such as this was real, would you wear it? Or does it seem too terrifying a concept to consider? Please comment below and let us know.
I hope that you liked this article. If so, you may be interested in the Skyrim VR Out Now article. You may also like the Fallout 4 VR Free with HTC Vive article.

3 responses to “Fake Viral Marketing Campaign For Azana Bands Is Scaring Parents”
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the problem with that is it would actually stab you or it wouldn’t really work. i’ve participated in a study where they attempted to simulate feeling with current. they were just trying to achieve sufficient localisation to distinctly tell where the stimulus was suppose to be, a sense aside from tingling would be either impossible or orders of magnitude more difficult.
there are three basic senses that the skin can detect heat, pressure, and pain (the feeling of wet is simulated by the brain when it encounters particular pressure temperature combinations, why cold breezes can feel wet). i kind of doubt that simulation can be done without side effects even with a direct up-link, spamming pain would flood your system with adrenalin and repeated use would probably cause all kinds of problem.
I think it’s easier than a direct neural link. Just get a vest, put a few actuators in it kinda like the rumble feature, then attach some pokie things to the actuators.
Instead of a rumble feature, you get a stabby feature!
in other news are old people easily led on and fooled? find out after this 10 minute commercial break. for those who wonder about such a products viability; simulating anything with any accuracy would require a direct up-link to the nervous system, ideally to the brain or spinal cord and is 15-20 years away in the most optimistic projections. as an engineering hack some things might be possible by tricking vision and hearing but such methods would have strong limitations.
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