Facebook-owned Oculus wants to make the virtual reality (VR) world a lot more immersive for people. How? With a novel idea – a VR selfie stick!
That's correct. Facebook wants people to click selfies in VR, and to aid the process it is developing apps that will make it seamless for people to share images with those using the Oculus Rift headset. The apps basically will put a screen in such proximity to one's eyes so that a person will be deceived into believing that they are in a world which is computer generated.
On April 13, at its F8 developer conference in San Francisco, Facebook demoed the prototype of the ToyBox virtual reality software.
Facebook's CTO Mike Schroepfer showed off the app that will enable people not only to share 360-degree photographs, but also look around together.
One of the demos by Schroepfer involved bringing Michael Booth, who leads the Social VR team, on stage virtually. The two traveled around London, taking a virtual selfie with the virtual selfie stick from Oculus. Oh, did we mention they were wearing virtual ties while at it and clicking in front of the Big Ben?
"Today at F8, Schrep and I demonstrated a simple exploration we've hacked together which shows the potential of VR for social interactions. Physically, he was in San Francisco and I was 30 miles away in Menlo Park, but as soon as we both put on our headsets we were together, sharing the same virtual space," revealed Booth in a Facebook post. "This is just the beginning of our exploration into how people can connect and share using today's VR technology."
How The VR Selfie Stick Works
Two people who are wearing Oculus Rift headsets locate each other in a dedicated room. In this room they can espy avatars floating around, computer-generated images that are representative of them in the virtual world. The room has a table that holds spheres. This is basically representative of 360-degree photos. If one nabs a sphere and puts this on the avatar's face they are automatically transported inside the image. What's more, one can check out things from its center.
Facebook is not stopping at this and has developed a virtual selfie stick that will allow people to click selfies in VR in a 360-degree photo. If you're wondering if this selfie can be shared on Facebook from the app, yes it can! You simply drop the photo into a post box that has Facebook's logo.
The selfie has been shared by the two on Facebook, giving us a glimpse into the possibilities a VR selfie stick holds. We can only imagine how experiences can be made more immersive by tapping into VR.
