Last year saw Oculus and HTC launch their rival VR headsets in the form of the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive, and while they weren’t the devices to bring VR fully into the mainstream, there are big plans ahead, it seems.
At least, on the Oculus side. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has shared a few photos, on of which shows him using prototype gloves for the Oculus Rift.
Facebook-owned Oculus already has the Oculus Touch – a set of twin motion controllers that give the user a much more immersive VR experience.
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But it seems the company is working to make the experience even more immersive, with Zuck explaining a little bit about the prototype in the photo’s caption:
“We’re working on new ways to bring your hands in virtual and augmented reality. Wearing these gloves, you can draw, type on a virtual keyboard, and even shoot webs like Spider Man. That’s what I’m doing here.”
Of course, the gloves are just a prototype at this stage, so there’s no guarantee they will ever make it to market, but Zuck’s eagerness to show them off bodes well for the gloves arriving in some form in the future.
At the very least, we now know the company is working on new technologies for the headset, which despite the launch of the Touch controllers, has yet to outdo the rival Vive and bring VR to the masses.
That’s partly down to its restrictive cost, with both the Oculus and Vive costing way above the the £500 mark. And with competition from the likes of the much more affordable PlayStation VR, Oculus has its work cut out.
Zuckerberg adds in another caption: “We’ve built labs that let us quickly make new kinds of lenses and devices to push the boundaries of virtual and augmented reality.”
The Facebook CEO also said that his team is aiming to make compact glasses and software that allows for a wider variety of virtual reality experiences.
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Let us know what you think of the Oculus gloves prototype in the comments.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
