It is not a secret that Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO and founder of the largest social network in the world, is a huge supporter of concept of virtual reality (VR). Through the purchase of Oculus Rift in 2004, he has established himself as a strong competitor in the field of VR development. After a demonstration of the new Gear VR headsets at the unveiling ceremony for the Samsung S7, Zuckerberg surprised thousands of unsuspecting techhies with his presence, as well as a speech on the future of VR.
The Gear VR headsets were a product of a partnership between Samsung and Oculus VR. Combining the pristine OLED display of the Samsung phones and the software of Oculus VR, the headset can be easily connected to the S7, S7 edge, or the Note 4 to create your own personalized virtual reality. The Gear VR can be used to watch 360-degree videos, a video format introduced by Facebook last year; play one of the many games optimized for virtual reality; or even watch a movie in your own private theater. During the demonstration, the audience was transported to the streets of Barcelona using this technology, allowing Zuckerberg to sneak past unnoticed.
“Pretty soon we’re going to live in a world where everyone has the power to share and experience whole scenes as if you’re just there, right there in person,” said Zuckerberg during his speech, detailing his vision for the future of the social network industry. “Imagine being able to sit in front of a campfire and hang out with friends anytime you want. Or being able to watch a movie in a private theatre with your friends any time you want. Imagine holding a group meeting or event anywhere in the world that you want. All these things are going to be possible. And that’s why Facebook is investing so much early on in virtual reality. So we can hope to deliver these types of social experiences.”
Zuckerberg touched upon the improvements that Facebook is currently implementing to accommodate the integration of VR. Included are new updates to Facebook’s 360-degree videos, a new feature called dynamic streaming, and promises to quadruple these videos’ resolution while decreasing the bandwidth necessary to stream them by a factor of four. He also announced the creation of a “Social VR” team at Facebook, whose ultimate goal is make the concept of socializing through virtual reality a reality. Using his daughter Max’s first steps as an example, he explained how the progression of technology helps in capturing memories. Starting from writing, to taking photographs, to taking videos, he believes that the next logical progression of social media is VR, in that it would enable people to share a moment or relive a moment by recreating it around them.
According to the market researchers at TrendForce, the market for VR could potentially reach $70 billion by the year 2020. Despite this, the Gear VR headset is surprisingly affordable. Samsung promised that the Gear VR will be available to consumers worldwide for as little as $99 USD. On top of that, they also announced that they will be giving away a free set of Gear VR to every pre-order of the S7 and S7 edge.
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