According to the Financial Times of London,  Facebook has purchased a leading company that markets VR (virtual reality) headsets for video games.

Oculus is a company that has sold about 135,000 development kits for virtual reality headsets over the last two years, but is now nearly ready for consumers to experience what is called the Rift.

It's a headset that covers the eyes, complete with headphones, and was shown off a technology conference last weekend in Los Angeles.   Oculus has sped up research and development after it was purchased by Facebook for $2 billion dollars in March.

Already some video games are able to utilize virtual reality features, but the Rift will take the technology beyond,  expanding it to teleconferencing, and social networking - Facebook.

Developers are hoping to expand traditional VR experiences from ones only the user experiences, to widespread interaction.  According to the Financial Times:

"Oculus executives said  within five years, grandparents will be watching their distant grandchildren’s birthday parties through a VR headset or chatting with realistic, digitised avatars of their friends. "
Avatars of friends and family...hmmm.  We've seen how discussions and interaction on Facebook and other social media can turn ugly for a wide variety of reasons.   Not sure being able to do that in VR will be a good idea!

 

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