The Facebook CEO said in a podcast with The Information that he would “love to get to a point where you have realistic avatars of yourself”.
In the podcast, Zuckerberg discussed the future of Facebook’s forays into VR technology, as seen in their Oculus devices.
He said that one of the things that he is most excited about in future versions is “getting eye tracking and face tracking in because if you’re really excited about social presence, you want to make sure that the device has all the sensors to really kind of animate realistic avatars so you can communicate well like that.”
He also said that the new generations of avatars would be coming later this year, with increasingly realistic versions to come.
“The biggest things that we’re focused on right now are, how do you pack basically more sensors to create a better social experience on the device.”
Facebook acquired Oculus in 2014 for US$2 billion. There was some backlash from Oculus users when the deal occurred.
However, in the first quarter of 2020, Facebook made $297 million in non-advertising revenue which was, according to the platform, “driven largely by sales of Oculus products”.
In August 2020, Facebook announced that future Oculus devices would require a Facebook log-in to access the headsets.
Currently, Facebook offers two Oculus products. The Quest 2 is an all-in-one gaming headset that costs approximately AU$479 for 64GB and $639 for 256GB, while the Oculus Rift S is designed for use with PCs. It retails for AU$499.
Facebook has plans to cease sales of the Rift, or any other PC-only headsets, this year.
