After the company's acquisition of Oculus Rift, Facebook has announced that it will be providing a social VR experience comparable to futuristic teleportation. Set to be a reality by 2025, the experience would use Oculus technology, including virtual reality goggles as well as soon to be acquired Oculus Touch controllers.
By enabling users to travel wherever they want, these experiences could truly feel like real teleportation -- visually interacting with an immersive surrounding from across the globe.
Facebook is the perfect company to enable a social virtual reality experience such as this, as it is already the best platform for connecting friends across the globe. Now, it will be able to physically and visually connect people in a more realistic way than ever.
What's Driving This Trend
- Social Virtual Reality
- Opportunity for companies to provide immersive virtual reality experiences for social interactions with potential further applications in retail, entertainment and education.
- Telepresence Technology
- Telepresence technology is expanding with the rise of virtual and augmented reality, which can provide a digital representation of an individual in a remote location. This represents an opportunity for companies to leverage the technology for remote collaboration, education or social interaction.
- Next Generation VR Hardware
- The development of next-generation VR hardware, including haptic suit and gloves, presents an opportunity for companies to explore fully immersive VR experiences, including social VR teleportation.
Who This Affects Most
- Virtual Reality
- The VR industry will benefit by providing new social interaction experiences that mimic in-person meetings, which can extend to industries such as retail, entertainment, education, healthcare and telecommunication.
- Telecommunication
- Telecommunication companies have the potential to provide new communication channels in a more immersive and engaging way, which can provide new solutions for remote collaboration, education and entertainment.
- Retail
- Retailers have the opportunity to create unique and engaging shopping experiences through virtual reality technology, which can include social interaction and teleportation, to attract new customers and improve the overall customer experience.
