Facebook creates new VR(Virtual Reality) team

In its bid to further explore immersive new virtual reality (VR) experiences that will help people connect and share, Facebook has created a social VR team focused entirely on exploring the future of social interaction in VR.This team will explore how people can connect and share using today's VR technology, as well as long-term possibilities as VR evolves into an increasingly important computing platform.The team members will work closely with US-based virtual reality technology company Oculus and other teams at Facebook to build the foundation for tomorrow's social VR experiences on all platforms."We have already helped people connectin a wide variety of ways on mobile devices -- ranging from Facebook and Instagram to Messenger and WhatsApp -- and now we want to apply that same approach to the new medium of VR," the social networking giant said in a blog post."In the future, VR will enable even more types of connection -- like the ability for friends who live in different parts of the world to spend time together and feel like they're really there with each other," it added.Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg thinks that "VR is the next platform.""Pretty soon we're going to live in a worldwhere everyone has the power to share and experience whole scenes as if you'reright there'," said Zuckerberg while speaking at the "Samsung MWC 2016" event in Barcelona, Spain, on Sunday.Also read:Facebook: Virtual reality will take time to developAlthough the work in VR is still in an early stage and there are a lot of hardware and software challenges that Facebook still needs to solve."But we're encouraged by our progress to date and we're excited to continue building VR technology that gives peoplenew ways to connect and share," the company said.Addressing a gathering at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco recently, Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said that turning virtual reality into a business is part of the firm's 10-year plan rather than an immediate action item.Echoing her comments, Facebook's chief financial officer David Wehner said there is much that can be "accomplishedwith virtual reality" but it is still "very early days"."It will take time to develop the ecosystem," Wehner added.

In 2016, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and is eventhinking of a simple AI to run his home and workplace like the famous Jarvis character in the Hollywood movie "Iron Man.""My personal challenge for 2016 is to build a simple AI to run my home and help me with my work. You can think of it kind of like Jarvis in Iron Man," he posted on Facebook on Monday."I am going to start by exploring what technology is already out there. Then I'll start teaching it to understand my voice to control everything in our home -- music, lights, temperature and so on. I'll teach it to let friends in by looking attheir faces when they ring the doorbell," the 31-year-old billionaire posted."I will teach it to let me know if anything is going on in Max's (his daughter) room that I need to check on when I'm not with her. On the work side, it'll help me visualize datain VR (virtual reality) to help me build better services and lead my organizations more effectively," he further wrote.His past new year challenges included reading two books every month, learning Mandarin language and meeting a new person every day."Every year, I take on a personal challenge to learn new things and grow outside my work at Facebook. The theme for his challenge this year is invention," he posted.At Facebook, he spends a lot of timeworking with engineers to build new things. Some of the most rewarding work involves getting deep into the details of technical projects."I do this with Internet.org when we discuss the physics of building solar-powered planes and satellites to beam down internet access. I do this with Oculus when we get into the details of the controllers or the software we're designing," Zuckerberg said."I do this with Messenger when we discuss our AI to answer any question you have. But it's a different kind of rewarding to build things yourself, so this year my personal challenge is to do that," he added.He also noted that despite all the fears about the technology, he thinks AI can be used to help others.Some Facebook users who read Zuckerberg's post suggested namesfor his personal AI assistant including "Zuckerbot" and "HOME-E.

In its bid to further explore immersive new virtual reality (VR) experiences that will help people connect and share, Facebook has created a social VR team focused entirely on exploring the future of social interaction in VR.

This team will explore how people can connect and share using today's VR technology, as well as long-term possibilities as VR evolves into an increasingly important computing platform.

The team members will work closely with US-based virtual reality technology company Oculus and other teams at Facebook to build the foundation for tomorrow's social VR experiences on all platforms.

"We have already helped people connect in a wide variety of ways on mobile devices -- ranging from Facebook and Instagram to Messenger and WhatsApp -- and now we want to apply that same approach to the new medium of VR," the social networking giant said in a blog post.

"In the future, VR will enable even more types of connection -- like the ability for friends who live in different parts of the world to spend time together and feel like they're really there with each other," it added.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg thinks that "VR is the next platform."