Facebook Talks VR at Oculus Connect 6 Conference in San Jose
The Menlo Park-based company is doubling down on the success of its standalone Oculus Quest headset with new features coming next year
By Jonathan Bloom ••
What to Know
Facebook announced new features including hand tracking for its Oculus Quest VR headset
A new social VR world, Facebook Horizon, is set to debut in 2020
Facebook confirmed it is working on building augmented reality glasses
Facebook opened a window into the future of Oculus, its virtual reality business, at the Oculus Connect 6 conference in San Jose this week.
Under banners reading "The Time is Now," Facebook executives at the conference stressed that they believe consumers' interest in VR is taking off again, in part because of strong demand for its $400 Oculus Quest headset, which delivers a richer VR experience than entry-level headsets like the Oculus Go, without need for wires or an attached PC.
Jonathan Bloom/NBC Bay Area
Thousands attended Oculus Connect 6, with its 2-hour keynote focused on the present and future of virtual reality.
Jonathan Bloom/NBC Bay Area
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder and CEO, has also become the face of Oculus. He opened the Oculus Connect keynote to applause, as a sea of smartphones lit up to take his picture.
Jonathan Bloom/NBC Bay Area
Mark Zuckerberg told OC6 attendees that "the time (for VR) is now" — and that Facebook, known for its social networking apps, is actively working on ways to make VR a less isolating and more social experience.
Jonathan Bloom/NBC Bay Area
The $400 Oculus Quest VR headset will gain hand tracking capabilities with a software update scheduled for 2020. Facebook says it made extensive use of machine learning to lighten the computing load, so a game can track players' hands without compromising its high-fidelity graphics.
Jonathan Bloom/NBC Bay Area
Facebook Horizon, a cartoon-like 3D virtual world, will debut first in a closed beta for developers, and then to the general public sometime in 2020. Users will be able to design their own avatars, chat with each other, post to Facebook and design new parts of the virtual world without taking off their VR headsets.
Jonathan Bloom/NBC Bay Area
A study by the Johnson & Johnson Institute showed that 83 percent of surgeons trained in VR were able to complete an anterior-approach hip surgery in a lab environment with minimal guidance. None of the surgeons who learned the same procedure through traditional observation methods were able to perform as well.
Jonathan Bloom/NBC Bay Area
Oculus Connect draws a global crowd of engineers and content creators, looking to make connections and form partnerships.
Jonathan Bloom/NBC Bay Area
Oculus Connect attendees waited in line — sometimes for hours — to try out the latest virtual reality content in the conference's demo hall.
Jonathan Bloom/NBC Bay Area
One of the most popular demos at Oculus Connect 6 was an early showcase of hand tracking — the ability for players to interact with the virtual world using their own bare hands and fingers.
Jonathan Bloom/NBC Bay Area
Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, a hotly-anticipated VR game set during World War II, was among the most popular demos at Oculus Connect 6. Players were treated to the full game experience, which could last as long as 30 minutes.
Facebook says Oculus is rolling out new features for the Quest headset in 2020, including hand tracking — the ability for players to interact with the virtual world using their bare hands, instead of physical controllers. Cameras on the front of the Quest headset that are used to track player movement will be able to track hands in real time after a forthcoming software update. Early demos of hand tracking on display at the conference ranged from wild fantasy to purely pragmatic, including a sorcerer's magical laboratory and a training program for Farmers' Insurance adjusters.
Oculus Quest will also gain the ability to play some games built for other Oculus devices, including the entry level Oculus Go, and now the high-end Oculus Rift PC headset. A new feature called Oculus Link will enable players to tether a Quest headset to a gaming PC with a USB-C cable and harness the PC's processing power to play graphics-intensive games.
Facebook also announced "Facebook Horizon," a cartoon-like virtual world in which players can create avatars for themselves and interact with their friends in 3D virtual space. Horizon will first be available in a closed beta test for developers attending the conference, then to the general public sometime in 2020.
Confirming speculation, Facebook also announced it is working on building augmented reality glasses — headwear that allows a user to see elements from the virtual world seamlessly floating in the real world. Executives didn't provide any additional details on the project yet.
