Oculus VR: with Facebook we want to replace vision

There's a stigma that comes with being acquired by Facebook and Oculus VR CEO and co-founder Brendan Iribe was quick to dispel any fears its fans might have about the social network ruining the Oculus Rift's future.

The reason we did the deal was Mark [Zuckerberg's] commitment to the vision that we have, doing it even faster, bigger, and better," Iribe expounded on the main stage at TechCrunch Disrupt.

Iribe specifically noted that thanks to the new partnership Oculus VR can leverage Facebook's network, infrastructure, and most importantly, money into hardware research and development.

Replacing Vision

While Oculus VR has created a much-improved Crystal Cove Oculus Rift, Iribe said it wants to push the envelope even further replacing our vision.

"I would say mobile is the last 2D screen based platform that will be around for a long time but it is very mature," he said. "It's not going to get much better from where it is now kind of like the way PC and mobile OS has plateaued."

Beyond screens, Iribe believes Oculus VR will synthetic vision, which users can hopefully put on as a pair of sunglasses.

"This is going to be what we call the final platform, replacing vision." he said. Unlike playing a first-person shooter, watching a curved screen or even reading a book Iribe explained that virtual reality will finally let users fully immerse themselves into an experience.

"When you look at VR and replacing vision and especially the version that really fundamentally flips the switch comfortably and puts you there, which most people haven't seen yet but it is there," Iribe expounded, teasing that Facebook's CEO has seen the prototype.

A virtual face to face

Beyond games Iribe believes that VR technology can be used for far more that gaming to create face to face conversations with someone over the web. "You will believe these virtual avatars are real and you will share a virtual space with them and have conversations."

"You'll look at their mouth while they're talking and their eyes, going 'I know that's you but you're a cartoon or you've changed your hair, but really I know that's you.'" Iribe described a virtual encounter. " You'll have a face to face conversation with somebody and that's the holy grail we've been trying to get to and it will take 10 or 20 years before it's realistically looking.

Bigger than GameBoy

Along with helping Oculus VR push the boundaries of VR, Iribe explained that the partnership will help it reach a boarder gaming audience.

"We're very committed to gaming, but do we want to be GameBoy or do we want to be iPhone or Android?" he asked.

"For VR we want to be building a platform with a billion users or 10, 15, or 50 million, and that's where we feel for content for games [Facebook] is going to have a lot more success shipping their content into a gaming ecosystem platform that has a billion users."

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