[Courtesy of UploadVR's YouTube channel]
Facebook, the world's largest social media, introduced social virtual reality (VR) software during the company's "F8 Conference". The company calls the software "social VR" and it runs on Oculus Rift VR headset.
Facebook demoed the social VR during the F8 developer conference on Wednesday. It works as exactly as its name describes- the software connects people in a virtual world.
The Facebook's CTO Mike Schroepfer stood before a live audience in San Francisco, but he was also at London in the virtual world inside the Oculus Rift headset. There he met up with another employee of Facebook who was connected to the software from the company's office in California.
The two people in the VR world had a small chat and also took a selfie using an augmented VR selfie stick and then the CTO shared the selfie photo directly to a Facebook page. Facebook's product manager Mike Beltzner said "This is how the Facebook is thinking about social VR." or at least, for now.
There are two teams building tools which are related to social VR and although its features are not yet released publicly, it would involve many into the world of social media just to have a chat with a friend who is away in another country, for play cards with former college mates in different towns.
Facebook had been throwing everything the company's got at improving the users' VR experience after acquiring a VR software / hardware company Oculus in 2014 for US$ 20,000,000,000.
"Proximity would no longer determine who you spend your time with," said the Oculus' head of research, Yaser Sheikh. He also explained that one of the key challenges is to make the avatars as realistic as possible. Facebook mentioned that the company is looking for ways to more personalized avatars, possibly adapting facial scan of users' face by using a smartphone.
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reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com