Industry News
Oculus Working on Standalone, Wireless VR Headset
Facebook’s Oculus division is working on a standalone version of the Oculus Rift virtual reality (VR) headset, with no wires and no connection to a PC, according to comments made today by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and a story published by tech site VentureBeat.com.
Zuckerberg announced the prototype at the Oculus Connect developer event in San Jose, CA, where 2,500 developers are attending the three-day event. He said the prototype sits between mobile VR, where you use a headset with a smartphone’s screen such as the Samsung Gear VR and the Google Pixel, and the Oculus Rift, which connects through wires to a PC.
“A standalone product that you can take with you into the world,” Zuckerberg said. “We are working on this now. It’s still early.”
He said Facebook has invested $250 million in VR content already, and it will invest another $250 million in future projects, including $10 million for investment. Facebook is doing this because the social media company believes VR will be the next major computing platform, Zuckerberg said.
In March 2014, Facebook purchased Oculus VR for $2 billion.
About the Author
Richard Chang is associate editor of THE Journal. He can be reached at [email protected].