One of the major criticisms of virtual worlds is that, for more and more people, they are becoming surrogates for real-life interactions. Designer Marc Owens may have found a way around this conundrum, combining the fantasy awkwardness of virtual-world interactions with real-world settings. As a bonus, shocked and befuddled spectators have been tossed in too.

The 26-year-old Royal College of Art design student has created the Avatar Machine: It's a big, bulky costume and a head-mounted camera that feeds into VR goggles, allowing users to view their own movements in three-fourths overhead perspective.

Boing Boing has a story of "beta testing" of the device in Tokyo--one of the few place in the world where people might already be accustomed to such shenanigans.