Facebook makes VR interesting, unveils wireless Oculus Quest headset
The new VR headset boasts the same quality experiences as the Oculus Rift, but without wires.
By PTI |
Agencies
SAN JOSE: Facebook on Wednesday unveiled an upgraded Oculus virtual reality headset with power to handle the intensive graphics of digital worlds in a wire-free experience.
The new Oculus Quest headset showcased at the Facebook unit's developer conference is being aimed at gamers seeking immersion in virtual worlds, with other potential applications likely in the future.
Oculus Quest headset
"This is the wireless virtual reality experience we have been waiting for," Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said as he unveiled the new hardware and reaffirmed Facebook's commitment to virtual reality.
The standalone VR headset boasting the same quality experiences as the Oculus Rift but without wires will hit the market early next year at a price of $399.
Oculus vice president Hugo Barra said Quest combined the capabilities of Rift and the portability of Go, the current headgear in the company's lineup, with a strong focus on games. Facebook's Oculus Go headset
ADVERTISEMENT
Rift was the first VR gear released by Facebook-owned Oculus, but needs to be plugged into computers powerful enough to handle the graphics rich, immersive nature of digital worlds.
Go is a lightweight portable headset for virtual reality.
Oculus promised 50 game titles available at launch, including "Vader Immortal," which will let Quest users play through the opening episode of a new virtual reality experience set in a castle of infamous "Star Wars" villain Darth Vader. Star Trek featured game on Facebook's Oculus Rift The "Star Wars" virtual reality experience was described as a combination game and immersive film.
ADVERTISEMENT
In a self-deprecating moment on stage, Zuckerberg recalled setting a goal of getting a billion people into virtual reality after buying Oculus some four years ago in a deal valued then at $2 billion.
He chuckled along with the audience as he shared a graph showing they were a scant one percent of the way to that goal. Oculus Quest headset
ADVERTISEMENT
"This isn't a question of whether we are going to get there, it is how," Zuckerberg said, while acknowledging the path may be longer than first expected.
He said a speed bump on the road to adoption that Quest was intended to solve was making VR more convenient and portable.
A second challenge, he said, was creating a vast, enticing ecosystem of games, films, meeting spaces and other experiences in virtual reality.
The two-day Connect conference was intended to inspire software makers to help create that ecosystem.
Oculus Quest headset "We are going to make some big leaps in both technology and content," Zuckerberg told the gathering.
"This is all still early, but this is the basic road map."
Anshel Sag, analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, said the Quest could make it easier to get into virtual reality gaming at a reasonable price.
"I think this brings console quality gaming and experiences to a price point that previously wasn't possible," Sag said.
"It makes it easier to get into virtual reality without spending a lot of money." Despite technology advances in recent years, virtual reality gear remains the stuff of early-adopters like video game lovers and hasn't gone mainstream with consumers.
Oculus Quest headset Facebook's vision of virtual reality goes far beyond games to a time when members of the leading online social network can virtually visit one another with the help of avatars.
"There is simply no substitute for being there," vice president of augmented and virtual reality Andrew Bosworth told the gathering.
"Tools we are building in AR and VR have the opportunity to answer the question of what it would be like to be transported."
6 Amazing Augmented Reality Experiences On iPad That Are Free
1/7
Even though augmented reality (AR) apps have been around for a long time, we’re still only beginning to scratch the surface of possibilities. New iPads are among the best way to experience AR thanks to the large screens, faster processors and Apple’s ARkit framework. Here are some genuinely astonishing AR apps that are available completely free.
Even though augmented reality (AR) apps have been around for a long time, we’re still only beginning to scratch the surface of possibilities. New iPads are among the best way to experience AR thanks ..
Read More
Using tape measures is so old school now that you have AR to help. It sounds almost unbelievable but you can actually measure (with a fair degree of accuracy) things like a person’s height, the diameter of a circular table, the length of a sofa and even the height of a building. AirMeasure gives you a point and shoot ruler — just tap to start and move the device along the plane you want to measure. But that’s not all, you can use it to create a floor plan, project a level line (to see whether your painting is hung straight), measure distance to a far away wall (like a laser distance measurement tool) and much more. Our favourite is the virtual furniture — you can place things like tables, chairs, beds, desks, shelves and so on into your room. Then walk around them to see how they look from different parts of the room.
(Image: http://armeasure.com)
Using tape measures is so old school now that you have AR to help. It sounds almost unbelievable but you can actually measure (with a fair degree of accuracy) things like a person’s height, the diame..
Read More
Holo is short for holograms — actual 3D animals and people you can place into your real surroundings. Some of the holos you can download for free include Spiderman, a zombie, tigers, celebrities and even Bollywood dancers. The developer is constantly adding more holos that you can download to your device. Holos are dynamic, which means they’re not static images but accurate, moving avatars. Once you scan a flat surface and place a holo, you can rotate it and scale it up or down in size to match real world sizes. Then you place yourself into the frame and snap a photo or capture a short video. In the right kind of lighting, it can look quite convincing too. Holo is also available for Android.
(Image: https://thisisholo.com)
Holo is short for holograms — actual 3D animals and people you can place into your real surroundings. Some of the holos you can download for free include Spiderman, a zombie, tigers, celebrities and ..
Read More
Learning is a lot more fun in AR and if a complex subject like math can be visually represented in your real world, it might make concepts a lot clearer. GeoGebra places math objects in your world so that you can explore them from different angles. You can place solid objects into your view while little exercises teach you about pyramids, prisms and cubes. More advanced users can look at the impossible Penrose triangle, 3D functions, spiral staircase and Sierpinski pyramid among others. You will have to physically move around the virtual objects to complete the tasks and take the required screenshots.
(Image: www.geogebra.org)
Learning is a lot more fun in AR and if a complex subject like math can be visually represented in your real world, it might make concepts a lot clearer. GeoGebra places math objects in your world so..
Read More
This app is a great example of how AR can help solve problems even in long distance. If you’re tech savvy, you’ve probably been asked for help with common tech issues over the phone. Problem is, over the phone, it’s really hard to explain to someone which button to tap, which menu item to click and which port to use. Vuforia’s Chalk opens up an AR guided private chat between you and the person you’re helping. They can activate their camera and you can doodle with virtual chalk right into their view — making circles, drawing arrows and illustrating as needed. But that’s not even the best part. Whatever you draw on sticks to the item you drew it on, so even if the camera moves around, the instruction stays true and correct.
(Image: https://chalk.vuforia.com)
This app is a great example of how AR can help solve problems even in long distance. If you’re tech savvy, you’ve probably been asked for help with common tech issues over the phone. Problem is, over..
Read More
Imagine seeing an entire, living landscape on your table. You can zoom in, look around and learn more about why free flowing rivers are so important. Through helpful little floating tips, you learn more about the journey of water, how it impacts the area through which it flows, the people it affects and how building dams can cause damage to delicate ecological systems. Place a dam and you can see (in accelerated time) how the river changes and how everything else is affected downstream. This app is the WWF’s concerted effort to educate about how human development can either be harmful or sustainable.
(Image: www.worldwildlife.org)
Imagine seeing an entire, living landscape on your table. You can zoom in, look around and learn more about why free flowing rivers are so important. Through helpful little floating tips, you learn m..
Read More
Graffiti in a public place can help beautify but it can also be an eyesore, with authorities stuck in a never-ending cycle of removing unwanted art.
What if that graffiti only existed in the virtual world and was only visible through an augmented reality app? That’s the idea behind World Brush.
You open up the app, hold it up and start drawing in virtual space. You should do this somewhere outdoors and your art will be geo-locked — this means it’s approximate GPS location is tagged and if another World Brush user comes along at a later date and holds up the app, he/she will be able to see and walk around what you drew. Another similar app without the GPS position (but more brush options) is 3DBrush — Augmented Reality.
(Image: https://itunes.apple.com)
Graffiti in a public place can help beautify but it can also be an eyesore, with authorities stuck in a never-ending cycle of removing unwanted art.
What if that graffiti only existed in the virtual..
