Mark Zuckerberg Confirms Facebook Has Plans For Augmented Reality

With Facebook acquiring Oculus and essentially the Oculus Rift in the process, it would be easy to assume that virtual reality is the next platform that Facebook is looking at. However it turns out that is not all. Speaking at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that the company is working on augmented reality tech as well.

If you’re expecting to see some kind of app or headset that will demonstrate augmented reality, you might be in for a wait. According to Zuckerberg, he confirms that the company is working on the technology, but also admits that it is a bit farther out. This was confirmed by Michael Abrash, the chief scientist at Oculus VR who notes that augmented reality still has quite a ways to go.

According to Abrash, he was quoted as saying, “Augmented reality will be here but it’s a long road to get there.” He also mentions that augmented reality is more difficult than virtual reality and presents its own set of problems, but he envisions a future where we could have headsets that can switch between augmented and virtual reality as we please.

Unfortunately there’s no word on when we might see Facebook’s augmented reality efforts, but in the meantime it looks like Microsoft might have gotten a headstart on them with the HoloLens, and if the speculation is right, the next-generation Google Glass could offer up similar technology as well.

Tyler Lee
Categories: General
Tags: Augmented Reality (AR), Facebook