Last week may have been dominated by the Facebook developer conference (F8) and the roll out of Oculus Go but the company isn’t stopping there. Today, Oculus Chief Scientist Michael Abrash has announced that Oculus Research, the R&D division of the company is now being rebranded as Facebook Reality Labs.
In a Facebook post today, Abrash not only confirmed the new name but also the fact that the lab’s main focus would remain unchanged when looking at the future of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) development.
“At Oculus Connect in 2016, I made predictions about the future, “as far ahead as I can see into the fog of time.” As I said then, that’s about five years. In those predictions, I shared what needs to happen with panel resolution, pixel density, field of view, depth of focus, and more,” said Abrash. “We are just a year and a half along now, and I would say those predictions are holding up well. In fact, the truth is that I probably undershot, thanks to Facebook’s growing investment in FRL, which allows us to push the boundaries of what it takes to build great experiences further and faster. We are helping Oculus and all of Facebook create trailblazing AR and VR experiences, from what’s most affordable to leading edge.”
Last year Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg offered a look behind the scenes at Oculus Research, showcasing some of the latest developments Oculus scientists and engineers were working on. These included images of engineers milling new components, staff in clean room suits and work on a pair of VR gloves.
F8 2018 the highlighted more recent developments such as the ‘Half Dome’ head-mounted display (HMD). This had a new varifocal feature that physically moved the internal screens to allow users to focus on objects that appear up close, which usually tend to blur and become unreadable on the Oculus Rift.
As Facebook Reality Labs continue their development work, VRFocus will keep bringing you the latest updates and announcements.
via Mint VR