Kelly Tortorice was already having a fantastic day at Valve Software’s headquarters in Bellevue, Washington. She was visiting her boyfriend Chandler Murch, an employee at Valve, and was testing out the upcoming HTC Vive virtual reality headset. Only a select number of partners have been able to get their hands on pre-release developer kits, so she was already off to a good start in being one of the first to experience the HTC Vive headset.
Her boyfriend didn’t stop there. As she cycled through a number of different demo experiences, like standing on a sunken ship in WEVR’s The Blu, or painting with fire in Google’s Tilt Brush, her boyfriend, now fiancé, threw in a new first by proposing to her in virtual reality.
According to a Facebook post by Kelly Tortorice, after going through a number of VR experiences in a testing room, “Suddenly, a virtual engagement ring started floating my way.”
Ring in virtual reality
From what could be revealed in the Facebook post, Murch had walked toward her while holding a trackable HTC Vive wand controller, which she saw through the headset as a ring in a box floating towards her in mid-air. Murch asked her to grab the controller, or for her the ring box with the ring, and asked her to remove the headset from her face. From virtual reality to reality, Murch was then revealed on one knee holding the real ring in the box!
Ring in reality
With both virtual ring in hand and real ring in the other hand, Tortorice shouted said yes with a “of course I will marry you!”
Great story and well played Chandler Murch.
The HTC Vive headset is looking more and more like it won’t ship consumer versions until early 2016, much in line with the consumer release of Oculus Rift and Playstation VR. And when that happens, it’s only a matter of time before we see our first VR wedding, that everyone can join in on the celebration.
Image Credit: Kelly Tortorice Facebook
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