First virtual reality (VR) body swap simulation

As demonstrated in 2013, The Machine To Be Another is an open-source system that gives users the opportunity to interact with another person's experiences via virtual reality. It was devised and created by the international, cross-disciplinary collective Be Another Lab. The process involves two spaces, one for the user and one for a performer; the latter effectively becomes a living avatar of the user. Wearing an Oculus Rift virtual-reality (VR) headset, the user is allowed to see what the performer is looking at; the performer wears a wide-angle camera that transmits what he or she is seeing back to the user. The performer closely imitates the user's movements, while words spoken by the performer are transmitted back to the user via a microphone and headphones. This gives the user the impression that he or she is "hearing" the performer's thoughts. In this way, VR technology enables the user to "experience" multiple identities, including people of another gender or racial type.

The Machine To Be Another was demonstrated during an art residency at L'Estruch cultural centre in Sabadell, Spain, from March to June 2013, and also inatthe Madrid-MIT M+Vision Hacking Medicine Madrid event in the Spanish capital, in July 2013.