During the second day keynote of Facebook’s F8 Developer Conference, Oculus showed off an entirely new way to get social in VR.
On stage, Facebook’s CTO Mike Schroepfer showed how 360-degree photos can instantly be shared with a friend in VR, with 360 photos appearing as handheld spheres. You can virtually grab the floating sphere and smash it against your face, you will then be instantly teleported into the content of the spherical photo.
Also adding to the social experience with a habit many may be familiar with, Oculus showed off a VR selfie stick, where you can take a photo of your avatar and your friend in front of world landmarks.
Taking the social VR demo even further, you can also draw on your avatar to add glasses or a tie that can be attached to your avatar.
When all is said and done, you can take your virtual selfie photo, drop it into a virtual Facebook mailbox and have it immediately posted to the Facebook social network.
Schroepfer was joined by colleague Michael Booth (a leader of the Social VR team) live in VR who was actually located elsewhere in California, miles away from the F8 stage. Booth commented in a post he shared with his VR selfie (below), “This is just the beginning of our exploration into how people can connect and share using today’s VR technology.”
Yesterday, Facebook showed off their $30k Surround 360 camera which was used to capture some of the 360-degree photos shown in this on stage demo.
Image Credit: Facebook
