Facebook & VR: What's up?

Lately, the Internet is raving about "on how Ser Mark Zuckerberg walks among his VR-troops in Godlike postures". An Orwellian scene, some would go as far to say - albeit an exaggeration - "the future is now". Will the technology ever be able to shake of its gimmicky image and will it ever have use outside the gaming branche? Has Facebook's acquisition of Oculus actually softened the idea of VR to acquire acceptance of the general public. Lets look at the history of Oculus and Facebook.

Mobile World Congress 2016, Barcelona.

Oculus and VR, a brief history

Wikipedia: An oculus (plural oculi, from Latin oculus, 'eye') is a circular opening in the centre of a dome or in a wall. Originating in antiquity, it is a feature of Byzantine and Neoclassical architecture.

VR has been around for decades, as the favorite brainchild of SciFi - duh, but also as a practical everyday object. The principles used in Viewmasters are actually pretty similar to the basic features used in the likes of oculus; stereoscopic 3D simulation by the use of 2 (fish-eye) lenses, through which 2 - slightly ofset - versions of exactly the same scene are projected. The similarities end there, but you get the idea.

Perhaps Sensei Palmer Lucky had been toying around with his childhood's viewmaster when the idea of Oculus sprung up in his mind, back in 2011. Whatever the incentive was, it didn't take him long to jumble together a working prototype in his parent's garage. Another successive classic IT "we-built-it-in-my-parent's-garage" - innovation miracle, proof it's not just a nostalgic 20th century thing.

P.L. had been displeased with the sparsely available VR-tech for years. The ones that were on sale were - according to him - technically inferior. Low res, low contrast, low field of view, nighly any forms of head-tracking. He wanted to build something that would please gamers and would be on a  sale for a reasonable price.

Palmer conceived of the idea whilst being a member and moderater of the Meant To Be Seen (MTBS) VR's enthusiast Forum. He presented his idea, members provided him with feedback, which enabled him to build a viable prototype. Lucky is his name because he also managed to gather attention from major developpers and studios;

Source:  Los Angeles Times & Eurogamer.net

"He (Palmer Lucky, sic) showed an early prototype to Brendan Iribe, a former executive of Gaikai and Scaleform, who described it as "dangling wires and circuit boards and duct tape and hot glue all over the place" and invested "a few hundred thousand" U.S. dollars in the Rift's Kickstarter campaign.^[1] Iribe joined as Oculus VR's CEO, and Michael Antonov (former CTO of Scaleform) joined as chief software architect. Luckey also demoed the unit to Valve, and received Kickstarter endorsements from Valve's managing director Gabe Newell and prominent veteran Michael Abrash (now Chief Scientist at Oculus VR). During the Kickstarter campaign, Luckey demoed the Rift atQuakeCon 2012.^[6]"

With enough backup, advice from major industry pioneers, enough resources (and guts) were gathered to present a prototype at the 2012's E3 in La.

2011-2012, sounds like last yesteryear but in the 5 years between then and now, Oculus went through a thunderous evolution, a history on its own. In those 5 years it went from a weird, honed contraption, passed the status of every  gamer's favorite underground dingbat and eventually got barfed out again by those same gamers "because Facebook made it an actual business, we hate business, boohoo".

Oculus did some PR mending after the facebook takeover, massaged the idea to the masses. Whatever Lucky was thinking, Facebook did provide him with the means - and PR networks - to be able to come out with a consumer ready version of the Oculus (May 6th, 2015).

Before the Facebook takeover, a multitude of prototypes had been presented, for developers but also for curious tech fans and gamers who couldn't wait to take on VR and started modding.

Oculus Rift Development Kit 1

The versions released before the Consumer Model.

• The earliest proptype: a direct rendition of Palmer's personal vision, backed up by ID Software through the provision of a Doom 3 special edition with exceptional VR support. Presented at E3 2012
• Rift Dev Kit 1: released by Oculus, only 2 months after it became an official company. DK1 went on sale for 300$ and was provided for "free" to the initial crowdfunders who donated 300$ or more. The model featured major technical improvements on a 7-inch screen, 250hz-1000hz  refresh rates, accelerometers, magnetometers and gyro-tracker to provide near-natural headtracking , a 1280-800 res (640 per eye) and 110° field of fiew (double the FOV of comparable, previously available consumer headsets). An instant succes, Oculus sold on average 4 to 5 units per minute in the first week of its release. 2012
• HD-protype. Presented at the E3 of 2013. It tackled DK1's biggest issue, the resolution. It doubled the number pixles, rendering them nearly invisible, resulting in more life-like virtual scenes. Altough presented publicly, it never became a publicly avaible DEV-kit.
• Rift Dev Kit 2: it featured an OLED display which came with a 960 to 1080 resolution, higher refresh-rates, positional tracking, the omission of the external control unit. It used Samsung Galaxy Note parts, the first bread-crumbs to the Future Samsung Co-op. Shipped in mid 2014
• Crescent Bay Dev Kit 2 upate: a version of of the forementioned which uses 2 separate screens instead of 1, has an option for built in audio, features LED on the back of the headset to support 360° FOV position-tracking. Also shipped in late 2014.
• About the Consumer Model: Shipped early in january 2016. It provides the same specs as the Crescent Update, featuring some technical fine-tuning on the 360° FOV and tracking capabilities. The main focus went to consumer ready ergonomics and aesthetics. Many improvements over the Dev-version have been installed to tackle sensations of dizziness that many users experience after long sessions.
• The Future: Oculus released a statement in which they intend to release a successive version of the Consumer Rift  "with 2 to 3 years". Source: gameinformer.com.

The Facebook Acquisition.

In 2014, Zuckerberg posted a statement of his personal FB-page, explaining the motivations behind the acquisition. There, Mark states he felt like;  
"we're in a position where we can start focusing on what platforms will come next to enable even more useful, entertaining and personal experiences.".

At that time, many users and supporters from the first hours, feared that through FB, the focus of Oculus would shift from gaming to other media.

Zuckerberg emphasized that they would never do such a thing; 
"Immersive gaming will be the first, and Oculus already has big plans here that won't be changing and we hope to accelerate. The Rift is highly anticipated by the gaming community, and there's a lot of interest from developers in building for this platform." 

However, FB wouldn't be FB if they didn't provide motivations in the directions of a social shift. Besides a gaming platform, FB sees the Oculus foremostly as a "communications device".
"This is really a new communication platform. By feeling truly present, you can share unbounded spaces and experiences with the people in your life. Imagine sharing not just moments with your friends online, but entire experiences and adventures."

Mark also has a dream:
"One day, we believe this kind of immersive, augmented reality will become a part of daily life for billions of people."

Facebook eventually bought Oculus for 400 USD in hard cash, and 1.6 billion USD in FB stock shares. A hefty sum for a company that had yet to release its first consumer product. The deal was sealed on the patio of Mark Zuckerbergs Palo Alto the day after Ocolus's Board of Directors (Lucky, Antonov, Iribe, and Marc Andreessen) had a late night meeting.