Facebook has revealed its ambitions to “effectively build a teleporter” by 2025.
The revelation came courtesy of Mike Schroepfer, Facebook’s chief technical officer, speaking at the Dublin Web Summit.
According to Schroepfer, the device won’t actually be a teleporter in a strict sense, but rather an extension of virtual reality.
“Facebook wants to build a device that allows you to be anywhere you want, with anyone, regardless of geographic boundaries,” the CTO explains, as reported by Business Insider.
The social media giant – and owner of Oculus VR – already has plans to launch the Oculus Rift early next year.
But Facebook’s long-term hope is that the Oculus Rift will eventually be able to trick our senses into thinking that we’re somewhere else.
If we can be persuaded into believing the virtual world around us is real, then the effect is almost as good as real teleportation.
Related: Oculus Rift vs HTC Vive
Schroepfer outs three challenges that currently prevent virtual reality from feeling real.
The first is seeing yourself and other people; can you look down and see your body parts, or look over and see your friends.
The second is imitating an actual environment; a real-world place that’s modelled and pulled into a VR environment.
The third is content creation; people need to have the resources to develop for VR platforms so that progression in the sector moves quicker.
Where would you like to teleport to? Tell us in the comments.
Check out our ‘Samsung Gear VR – Is this the future?’ video:
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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.
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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.