Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Big Bet That Facebook Can Make VR Social | WIRED

Also see Facebook CEO Gets Cozy With Samsung At Galaxy Launch Event (WSJ) and New Steps Toward the Future of Virtual Reality (Facebook Newsroom)

"Indeed it is, at least in a small way. The big question that remains is how social VR will dovetail with the rest of Facebook. The company is already adding 360-degree videos into the Facebook News Feed, and Zuckerberg sees this as a step towards virtual reality. Indeed, you can watch them with the Gear VR. But these videos don’t require a headset that wraps around your eyes. Virtual reality does. It shuts you off from the rest of the world, and that doesn’t necessarily jibe with Facebook, which is really something you use on a phone, while you’re doing other stuff—while you’re riding on a train to work or waiting for someone to meet you for dinner.

Zuckerberg doesn’t quite know how these two paradigms will meld. Or if he does, he’s not letting on. But the end game, he says, is a pair of super-lightweight eye glasses that can instantly shift you from the virtual world to the real world—and back again. These could immerse you in virtual reality or they could add digital stuff to what you see in the real world, augmented reality-style. Using these glasses, you could play virtual chess with someone on the other side of the world, he says. Or you could look still photos someone just sent you on Facebook."

Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Big Bet That Facebook Can Make VR Social | WIRED