![]() Gaining dominance in this space, which Facebook bets will be the next big computing platform, will allow it to be less reliant in the future on other hardware makers, such as Apple, the company has said.įacebook recently halted sales of its Oculus Quest 2 headsets and recalled the foam face-liners due to reports of skin irritation. The world's largest social network has invested heavily in virtual and augmented reality, developing hardware such as its Oculus VR headsets, working on AR glasses and wristband technologies and buying a bevy of VR gaming studios, including BigBox VR. Zuckerberg used the app to speak with King remotely, their avatars seated next to each other in a virtual conference room Zuckerberg has described it as an 'embodied internet.' ![]() The term 'metaverse,' coined in the 1992 dystopian novel 'Snow Crash,' is used to describe immersive, shared spaces accessed across different platforms where the physical and digital converge. 'This is kind of one of those foundational steps in that direction,' Bosworth told a virtual reality news conference. But it's this pretty amazing experience where, you know, you feel like you're really right there with your colleagues.'įacebook's vice president of its Reality Labs group, Andrew 'Boz' Bosworth, said the new Workrooms app gives 'a good sense' of how the company envisions elements of the metaverse. 'For people who can't be there through virtual reality, they could just video conference in. 'It basically gives you the opportunity to, you know, sit around a table with people and work, and brainstorm and whiteboard ideas. He added: 'In five years, people are going to be able to live where they want and work where they want, but get together with a sense of presence. 'So you can kind of think about it as, instead of being an internet that we look at, right, on our mobile phones or our computer screens, it's an internet that we are a part of, or that we can be inside of.' 'I think of the metaverse as the next generation of the internet,' Zuckerberg said, using the app to speak with King remotely, their avatars seated next to each other in a virtual conference room. Zuckerberg unveiled the new technology today in a demonstration with CBS This Morning host Gayle King, calling it an early step toward building his futuristic 'metaverse'. The app is free through Facebook's Oculus Quest 2 headsets, which cost about $300 (£219). Up to 16 participants can be hosted in the room, or up to 50 if the extra users are joining via a Zoom-style video chat as opposed to a virtual reality headset. The audio also offers an impressively realistic experience because sounds come from where a person in the virtual meeting room is speaking from, and can even appear muffled if someone turns away from you to talk. Mouths of the avatars move in time with real speech, while people can even make gestures because the app supports hand-tracking. The immersive experience also allows you to doodle on a whiteboard, both in front of the whole group and on a smaller scale on your virtual desk. You can also choose which virtual laptop you want to work from, which moves if you move your real one, and see your hands typing on the keyboard. When you put the headset on and join a meeting you are transported to a plush room with avatars that bear an uncanny resemblance to some of the characters on life simulation video game The Sims, first released in 2000.
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