The concept of teleportation has been around for decades, in a world where it’s possible, one would simply set into a teleportation station at one end and come out the other almost instantaneously. Unfortunately that’s not possible but perhaps we’ll be satisfied by something that emulates that experience in a way that’s much more real life and not sci-fi? Facebook wants to offer you that something by 2025.
Before appearing at the Dublin Web Summit Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer said that Facebook is interested in building a device which will enable you to be anywhere you want, with anyone, “regardless of geographic boundaries.”
It makes sense for the company to work on something like this, after all it paid $2 billion to acquire virtual reality outfit Oculus and the company would certainly want to use that technology for purposes other than gaming.
Obviously it won’t be actual teleportation, more like simulated teleportation, you’ll most likely strap on a headset and digitally experience whatever place the system allows you to explore either alone or with someone else. Schroepfer says that the idea is to trick your senses to believe that what they’re sensing is actually real and not a simulation.
Creating a real world environment in virtual reality won’t be easy though, but Facebook is of the view that Oculus Touch controllers which are due in Q2 2016 could make it easier to simulate real-time feedback and interactions that mimic life. All of this sounds good on paper but the technical challenges certainly won’t be easy to handle, that’s why a ten year timeframe does make sense, this is easier said than done.
Filed in . Read more about Facebook, Oculus and Virtual Reality (VR).