I tried out Facebook’s new Teleportation app at the company’s F8 event today. It was both a hands-on and face-on demo, as the 360-degree video app makes use of the social networking giant’s Oculus VR virtual reality technology.
I had to wait to get my demo because Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, got to the area just before I did. (And the picture above proves it.)
The app was running on the Samsung Gear VR virtual reality headset, which uses Oculus technology to view virtual reality apps via a Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone.
When it was my turn, I strapped on the headset like a pair of ski goggles and looked around. And around. And around.
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The demo took me to a live video of the central plaza inside Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. I was face to face with a DJ who was evidently blasting music during the lunch hour. I couldn’t hear that music, but I was free to look around in any direction. It was, indeed, as if I had teleported over to the campus. The video images were fuzzy, but they were clear enough to be able to see people and recognize faces.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Zuckerberg is getting a lot out of his $2 billion acquisition of Oculus VR just yet. This is just a glimpse of where VR — and livestreaming — can go in the future. But it’s not a bad start.
Above: Samsung Gear VR with Oculus tech
