The Northeastern University has found itself a target of a bomber that was said to have a grudge against Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, and virtual reality (VR), according to Engadget.
The Boston Police Department is investigating the attack on Holmes Hall, the university's virtual reality center. The attack left an employee injured after opening a package.
Attack on Northeastern University Leaves One Employee Injured
Law enforcement officials are still conducting an investigation into a bomb attack on the virtual reality center of Northeastern University in Boston. Reports said that the attack injured one staff member after opening a package containing the "plastic case."
Although not seriously injured, the staff member, who is working at the VR center, obtained lacerations on his hands.
According to CNN, the package "depressurized with the force of an explosion" when the employee opened it. The explosion of the "hard plastic case" happened on Tuesday evening.
The package, however, do not have "explosives or any detonation mechanism, as per The Verge.
The authorities are still investigating how did the package arrive at the virtual reality center, as it was not delivered through the US postal service.
According to CNN, the surveillance video is currently being reviewed by the authorities to identify how the package got into the building. Law enforcement is also trying to determine who brought the package to the virtual reality center.
Law enforcement officials said that the package comes with a "rambling note" that attacks Meta CEO. The note also attacked the "broader academic research on augmented reality devices."
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Authorities Are Still Looking for the Suspect of the Attack
The virtual reality center has a student-run virtual reality club. It is called NUVR. Every week, the group gathers at the Immersive Media Lab in Holmes Hall.
The virtual reality center housed the Immersive Media Labs Suite, which "includes technologies for design, development, and exploration of virtual worlds, AR/VR/XR, and 360 video."
The said attack on the virtual reality center can be considered an "unusual technology-related bomb attack," according to Engadget.
According to reports from the authorities, alarms at Northeastern University were triggered shortly after 7PM ET because of the package.
Fortunately, before 10 PM the scene is "contained." However, law enforcement officials are still looking for the suspect.
The bombing incident is considered a politically motivated attack. According to the lab manager, a note comes with the package, which is addressed to "the lab manager."
Based on CNN report, the note accuses the lab of "secretly working for Facebook and Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg in a US government plot to take over society through virtual reality."
To represent its increasing interest in virtual reality, Facebook rebranded to Meta about a year ago.
Now, the former Facebook company is being referred to by Zuckerberg as a "metaverse company."
However, despite its interest in virtual reality, Meta's investments in the said industry have not been profitable in the past years, as per TechCrunch.
Critics said that Meta's VR products remain "relatively rudimentary" despite the company spending $2.8 billion on Reality Labs.
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