Zuck vs sweat: Meta's quest to stop perspiration destroying VR headsets
How did the company formerly known as Facebook respond when users claimed sweatiness was bricking their $500 devices?
When owners of the Meta Quest 3 started using the headset to exercise in virtual reality, they quickly became aware of a potential problem.
What happens when you dance around during a simulated aerobics class? Liquid pours from your forehead. And what's the one thing you don't want landing on a £500 device? Liquid.
The Meta Quest 3 was released at the end of 2023 and appears to have sold well enough for a VR headset (which are devices that Silicon Valley keeps on trying and failing to persuade us to buy in large numbers).
Part of Meta's sales pitch for the device was that it would "take fitness to another dimension" by letting users take part in "out-of-this-world workouts for your mind and body".
Even bashing berserkers in Asgard’s Wrath 2 or blasting zombies in Resident Evil is a way to zap a few calories, because sofa-bound gaming is not the order of the day in virtual reality. You have to get up and move.
Unfortunately, when some gamers started to feel the burn or became a bit too excited when slaying bad guys, they claimed to have encountered an issue.
Sweat inequity? The problem with perspiring in VR
Some users on Reddit and Meta’s support forums alleged that sweat damage may have contributed to headset malfunctions, with a number of posts on Reddit and Meta's support forums making similar claims.
People said they experienced a "tracking failure" which prevented the headset from detecting the movements of their head and hands. On Reddit, others claimed their sweat had "killed" or "bricked" the entire device. In some cases, users said Meta replaced their headsets.
"I was playing Les Mills Bodycombat with Quest 3 - total punishment workout," one user wrote. "Near the end of it, I was sweating like a pig and my left lens started flickering. Turned off the headset immediately, but after an hour it died completely."
On the Meta support forum, a Meta Quest 3 owner claimed to have broken three headsets during impassioned ping pong sessions in the game ElevenTableTennis.
"Your headset is also advertised for workouts, but unfortunately, that's not possible because sweat always occurs during workouts and apparently the devices aren't sufficiently protected against it," they angrily alleged.
One Meta support worker then wrote: "You make a good point that sweat should be considered in future designs!"
Now Machine has found out that Mark Zuckerberg's team of researchers actually did take this idea on board and got to work on fixing the problem pretty quickly.
It's been claimed that Zuck has taken sweat very seriously over the years. One unconfirmed and probably totally false rumour we are reporting as a joke, not a serious allegation, suggested that the billionaire had staff blow-dry his armpits before public appearances due to his alleged propensity for "anxiety sweat".
Zuck was also ribbed rather unfairly in 2010 after becoming a wee bit hot and bothered during an "awkward, sweaty" keynote interview at the D8 conference, which you can see below.
Sweating the details
But after reviewing a patent filing published this month, Machine can reveal just how much Meta has sweated over the perspiration problem.
In July 2024 - less than a year after the release of the Meta Quest 3 - Meta published a patent called "techniques for guiding perspiration to desired channels to avoid negative impacts to electrical and mechanical functions of extended-reality devices and systems".
Although we have been unable to confirm when work began on this invention, it seems likely that Meta got started on squashing sweat problems as soon as rumours about alleged problems began to circulate.
"Users of mixed-reality (MR) headsets can become substantially immersed in the MR content presented by such MR headsets, which can be conducive to a richer, more engaging user experience," Meta wrote, using the acronym MR instead of the more commonly used VR.
"However, one drawback of such immersion while wearing a MR headset is that the user's perspiration can become trapped within a portion of the MR headset that houses the electronic and mechanical components, potentially causing damage to the MR headset."
Essentially, Meta's design uses a two-part housing design with built-in channels. The patent shows images which look a lot like the cheaper Meta Quest 3S, suggesting but not confirming this newer device has addressed the sweat issue. Certainly, we have not been able to find complaints about the 3S being brought down by its owner's sweatiness. The device also has a complementary "breathable facial interface" which looks a lot like the drawings in the patent.
The channels described in Meta's patent direct perspiration away from sensitive electronic and mechanical components.
They work by slowing down the passage of perspiration, collecting it in pockets or forcing sweat along "torturous paths" rather than letting it flood vital areas of the device.
"The MR headset includes a channel defined by a first perimeter of the first part of the two-part housing and a second perimeter of the second part of the two-part housing," Meta wrote. "The channel is configured to guide perspiration along the first perimeter of the first part or the second perimeter of the second part, away from the electronic and mechanical components housed in the two-part housing."
We have written to Meta for comment, asking if the sweat problem was fixed and how the patent has been incorporated into its technology, because we thought this could be a cool (no pun intended) story about how Meta listened to its customers. But it did not respond. Which is no sweat to us!
Disclaimer: The claims referenced in this article reflect user-submitted reports and public patent filings. Meta did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication.
