VR @ F8

The last time we visited the virtual reality industry was just after CES, when the hype and promise of the technology seemed pervasive. After an equally strong showing at SXSW and with the long awaited Oculus Rift finally in the hands of those who preordered, let’s take a look at what Facebook’s F8 Conference and other recent headlines reveal about virtual reality and the world’s leadings social platform.At their F8 Conference in San Francisco, Facebook presented a clearer picture of what the merger of VR and social platforms will look like. Social presence algorithms, based on observable body language in human interactions, will bring real life, gestural movements to stylized avatars and eventually to digital renderings of your friends and family within Facebook.Be it for long-distance business collaboration or catching up with friends and family, Facebook is betting big that VR on social apps, supported by an algorithmic approach to fabricated feelings of “presence”, will be the next phase of social networking.Further bolstering the VR market is Facebook’s not entirely new foray into 360 video, from which the platform generates one million views daily. This spherical content can be viewed with or without a VR headset, making it an ideal transitional medium, that once combined with Facebook Live, reveals that Facebook’s version of a live, communal viewing platform similar to the Comcast-backed AltspaceVR isn’t far off. Since Facebook, already owns the relationships with users, they can introduce social VR at scale, while burgeoning platforms such as Altspace need still fight for market share.Another indication that Facebook is very much concerned with market making (for an industry where they will be the primary touchpoint for end users) is their decision to release the software and hardware specs for their Surround 360 camera through open source. Although the plans call for about $30,000 worth of components, as prices drop over time and specs are refined through the open source process, the camera provides a way to increase 360 video for both the Facebook NewsFeed and Oculus, while reducing post-production processing for content creators.Current offerings in spherical video are limited primarily to the GoPro 6-camera rig and VR start-up Jaunt, but Facebook’s Surround 360 aims to be a new standard for developers to use and improve upon. High quality footage, durability and ease of transport to shooting locations—this includes maintaining alignment among multiple cameras and synchronizing simultaneous footage—add up to a simplified VR production process with dramatically shorter post-production times.While the future in Facebook’s eyes is one in which geography places no limitations on the ability to work, socialize and experience life’s offerings with others, interaction in the virtual world today is limited by what headsets and hand controllers can transmit.As long as Facebook continues to invest in the ecosystem as a whole, as they have with their 360 Surround camera, a future where Facebook is not the clear leader seems, well, virtually impossible.