Mark Zuckerberg, CEO Facebook showed off live VR chat using Oculus Rift on Thursday, with his own Justin Timberlake look-a-like avatar. At the Oculus Conference, Zuckerberg demonstrated the Oculus Touch controller's emotion options, which make avatars show facial expressions, letting you look surprised, happy or confused in VR on stage.
A spokeswoman for Facebook said that eventually the goal is to achieve most of what you saw today through gestural tracking and voice analysis.
Two new features were introduced the Parties and Rooms that let people come together in VR lounge, where users can watch videos, listen to music and hang out. The rooms will be Oculus' core spot for the device's social apps.
Oculus platform focuses for the social integration in the future which leads the demonstration on Thursday, taking charge over VR game titles shared the spokeswoman. During the demo several features were shown including changing backgrounds to live locations like inside FB offices or at Zuckerberg's home where he was able to check his dog, Beast.
"We should build software and experiences that follow the way our minds work and process the world," Zuckerberg said. "Virtual reality is the perfect platform to put people first because of presence."
The CEO showed off a few of the creative possibilities that come with the new Oculus platform, with your creative minds you can draw and play with total social experience. The demonstration was FB's first dive into creating a social platform for Oculus, using VR to connect with your friends and family.
The Oculus is one of the major tech companies pushing virtual reality as the next big trend. The company entered the VR business through its $1 billion acquisition of Oculus in 2014.
The new feature is pushing for a more social environment on VR. On Oculus Avatar feature allows users to create a digital version of themselves and interact with their friends from anywhere else in the world.
The social product team leader, Lauren Vegter, said that it is the first time that tech has made this level of social presence possible.
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