A new world of applications and services will open up thanks to augmented reality and virtual reality, according to Mark Zuckerberg. And the boss of Facebook thinks these technologies are developing faster than expected, he told VivaTech. “It started to take off a little faster than we ourselves thought,” said the billionaire, who was interviewed live on video conference by Maurice Lévy, the co-founder of the Parisian event dedicated to startups and to innovation.
Facebook, which recently released its new Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality mask, currently employs 10,000 people in virtual reality and augmented reality, Zuckerberg said. “We are investing billions and billions and billions of dollars” in these technologies, to build “an extraordinary future within 5 to 10 years,” said the boss of Facebook. Applications for virtual reality masks like Oculus and its competitors are “starting to come out” of video games, their first area of development.
Mark Zuckerberg cited sports training applications as an example: “you have a subscription, you take a mask and you find yourself in an incredible environment to take a boxing or dance class with a teacher,” he said. described.
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‘An economic wave’
Mark Zuckerberg also described his vision of a “meta-universe” (metaverse in English), a virtual universe where it is now possible to buy virtual goods. “Do this thought experiment, think of all the things in your life that don’t actually have to be physical that could be replaced by a hologram in a world where you wear smart glasses,” the boss explained. from Facebook. “Televisions will no longer need to exist physically, it can just be an application” which through these glasses “projects on a wall” images “which can be shared with your friends,” he continued.
“Rather than having to produce a television or some kind of complex physical object, which requires factories, raw materials, any child or developer in the world will be able to do this with a set of design tools. 3D and code, and being able to sell its products around the world, without having to worry about logistics or shipping, ”he explained.
For Facebook, augmented or virtual reality is not “just a way to create a great new experience, but to create an economic wave that could create opportunities for people around the world,” he said. “This is something that we are going to see unlocked in the next 5 to 10 years,” he said.
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