Facebook Unveils Virtual-Reality Headset

Facebook unveiled virtual-reality headset that works without being tethered to a computer, rounding out its plan for pushing the emerging technology to the masses.

The new $199 wireless headset by the title Oculus Go -- meant to be the company’s most accessible VR device -- will be available in early 2018. This moves will help Facebook reach a goal of putting 1 billion people in virtual reality, a technology that enables immersive gaming, video viewing and social networking, Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday at Oculus Connect, the annual conference of Facebook’s virtual-reality division. The company has focused on selling virtual reality as a way to remotely connect with other people and experience new things, as opposed to just as a gaming device -- the way most people use VR today.

Some people think that VR is isolating and antisocial, I honestly think it’s the opposite. If you can’t think of any way that your reality can be better then you’re not thinking hard enough. Zuckerberg said .

The Go device fits into Oculus’s line-up between the $130 Gear, which needs to be paired with a Samsung Electronics Co. phone to run, and the Rift, which requires a personal computer. Go is designed to be light and comfortable, said Hugo Barra said, head of of virtual reality, Facebook.

Zuckerberg has said, virtual reality will be the next major computing platform, after mobile phones. In order for the technology to go mainstream, Facebook has been focusing on building more relatable avatars -- the cartoon depictions of humans within VR worlds -- that move their lips when people talk and point their eyes in the right direction when focusing on something within a game. The company today announced a wider range of skin colors and clothing options for these avatars. Zuckerberg said the more real everything feels, the more likely people are to use VR for normal social interaction, lifting geographic barriers.

“Enabling us to be present anywhere creates opportunities for people everywhere,” Zuckerberg said, noting that not everyone has the same economic opportunities as his audience in Silicon Valley.

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