Palmer Luckey is undoubtedly one of the most well-known names when it comes to virtual reality. He made waves by founding Oculus, but after selling his shares in the company to Facebook in 2014 and then leaving his role within Facebook earlier this year, Luckey has now disclosed to the New York Times that he's in charge of a new startup working on surveillance technology.
He's supposedly already met with White House officials to discuss what PC Gamer is dubbing a "virtual wall". Peter Thiel, a technology advisor to President Donald Trump, is also planning to support Luckey with an investment fund.
Self-driving cars use a technology called LIDAR (light detection and ranging) to help them navigate, and Luckey plans to use this tech, along with infrared sensors and cameras, to watch the borders between countries for illegal crossings. This system can apparently be mounted on telephone poles, and is cheaper than Trump's plans for the infamous wall between the U.S.A. and Mexico.
"We are spending more than ever on defense technology, yet the pace of innovation has been slowing for decades," Luckey told NYT in an emailed statement. "We need a new kind of defense company, one that will save taxpayer dollars while creating superior technology to keep our troops and citizens safer."
No doubt we're still a fairly long way from this being widely implemented, but it would certainly be steps ahead of a physical wall on the Mexican border. It also follows suit for Luckey, as he was outed last year as donating large sums to a campaign of anti-Hillary Clinton memes, which resulted in several developers for Oculus distancing themselves.
What do you think? Would this be better than having a physical wall? Let us know down below.