- #FACEBOOK WANTS YOUR NEXT MEETING VR SKIN#
- #FACEBOOK WANTS YOUR NEXT MEETING VR SOFTWARE#
- #FACEBOOK WANTS YOUR NEXT MEETING VR FREE#
While Bosworth, the Facebook executive, was in the middle of describing how he sees Workrooms as a more interactive way to gather virtually with coworkers than video chat, his avatar froze mid-sentence, the pixels of its digital skin turning from flesh-toned to gray. And Workrooms uses a combination of hand tracking and spatial audio - which accounts for room acoustics and makes sounds appear to come from specific directions - to allow users to interact with each other in ways that mimic real life, except for a sound cancellation feature that eliminates background noise.īut it's clear Facebook is still working out some kinks. Headset wearers can view their real-life computer screen in VR via an accompanying desktop app. The app employs a slew of technologies and tricks to make the experience feel as in-person as it can be when you're represented in virtual space by an animated approximation of yourself. Workrooms may look like a step toward a more social virtual world, but it's not quite the picture Zuckerberg has painted. Despite its bleak origins, tech executives speak optimistically about what such a metaverse could be, with Facebook going so far as to create a "Metaverse product group" under Bosworth. In recent weeks, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other tech industry executives have spoken with increasing fervor about visions for a "metaverse." The term draws inspiration from a decades-old dystopian sci-fi idea for a virtual world that provides an escape from the realities of everyday life. A step forward - but it's not the metaverse, yet
#FACEBOOK WANTS YOUR NEXT MEETING VR SOFTWARE#
It shows how far Facebook has progressed in blending hardware and software since its purchase of Oculus in 2014 - and how far it still has to go. Workrooms may offer users a sense of what's to come. Horizon has yet to appear for most users and Facebook confirmed this week that the app remains in a private beta testing stage. Instead, it announced a virtual social world called Horizon, which was set to be released in 2020. The company shut down both VR apps in October 2019, however. The company launched virtual-hangout apps Oculus Rooms and Facebook Spaces in 20, respectively, which let small groups of users gather in VR. It's not the first time Facebook and its subsidiary Oculus have tried to popularize social interaction via VR. He said Facebook has been using the app internally for about a year. "The pandemic in the last 18 months has only given us greater confidence in the importance of this as a technology," Andrew Bosworth, VP of Facebook Reality Labs, said while addressing a (virtual) room of about a dozen people on Tuesday.
A virtual whiteboard lets people share pictures or make presentations. Headset-wearing meeting participants can use their actual fingers and hands to gesticulate in VR, and their avatars' mouths appear to move in lifelike ways while they speak. The app supports up to 50 participants in a single meeting, with the rest able to join as video callers who appear in a grid-like flat screen inside the virtual meeting room. Workrooms allows up to 16 VR headset users to meet in a virtual conference room, with each of them represented by a customizable cartoon-like avatar that appears as just an upper body floating slightly above a virtual chair at a table. The app stands out as the company's most ambitious effort yet to enable groups to socialize in VR and move the still niche medium beyond entertainment uses such as gaming.
#FACEBOOK WANTS YOUR NEXT MEETING VR FREE#
On Thursday, Facebook unveiled Horizon Workrooms, a free app for users of its Oculus Quest 2 headset, a device that starts at $299. For those who don't think Zoom meetings are a good enough substitute for the real thing, Facebook has another idea: a virtual reality app that lets you and your coworkers feel like you're sitting around a table in a conference room. Facebook has launched its beta version of its virtual meeting rooms, called "Horizon Workrooms."
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