Last year, Facebook, the largest social network in the world, had spent $2 billion to acquire Oculus VR. At first, the move was somewhat of a surprise since Virtual Reality is more inclined to be in relation with playing video games than interacting through social media. However, Facebook's plans with the acquisition of the Virtual Reality company has finally come to fruition - first came 360-degree videos in the News Food, and next comes Augmented Reality.
Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, at the Vanity Fair's New Establishment Summit in San Francisco confirmed that the largest social network is working on Augmented Reality. "Yeah!" said Zuckerberg excitedly when asked about the big question. "It's a bit farther out." he added.
Facebook first showed interested in Virtual Reality when it first acquired Oculus VR March of last year. The Oculus' Chief Scientist Michael Abrash said that Virtual Reality is already "past the knee of the curve," and it is here. Augmented Reality is different, however - it presents a new type of problems, making it a little while longer for it to become reality.
"There are a whole host of challenges - how you do the optics and displays and get photos onto the eyes, how you have something that's socially acceptable and comfortable all day. I think VR is here now, I think AR will be here, but it's a long road to get there." said Abrash.
Virtual Reality seeks to bring a fully immersive experience, while Augmented Reality provides another layer of information in its digital form overlaid to what is already visible to the human eye. Virtual Reality shuts out the rest of the world of its user, while Augmented Reality adds up to the experience, a connection, basically. In the future, Facebook may use this technology to produce information on an overlay rather than on a screen like people normally would.
