Did Facebook Buy Oculus To Counter Google Glass? 108
Nerval's Lobster (2598977) writes "In a statement soon after Facebook announced the acquisition of Oculus Rift, CEO Mark Zuckerberg suggested that the bulky Oculus headset had the potential to transform VR into the "most social platform ever." Whatever his reasons for shelling out $2 billion for the company, it's clear that Facebook is now a player in the augmented-reality space, which Google is also exploring in its own way. Yes, Google Glass serves a different function—overlaying maps and text over the wearer's view of the real world, rather than immersing people in a virtual environment—but the potential customer base for both devices is basically the same, and now Google has some real competition if it wants to transform Glass into some sort of gaming device. And despite some blowback from Markus Persson, it's likely that developers will continue to explore Oculus as a gaming platform, Facebook or no. Zuckerberg might be talking a good game about virtual realities far into the future (does he have to pay to promote his own posts on Facebook? Joke.), but this acquisition was likely a short-term play, as well."
incoherent (Score:5, Informative)
Google glass and Oculus Rift are in completely different spaces. One is Augment Reality and the other is Virtual Reality. One is for overlaying outside reality and the other is for replacing at least visual outer reality with other content. One is for augmented interaction with in commonly perceived visual world the other for deep immersion in a virtual world/worldview.
It is pretty sloppy thinking to consider them competitors.
Re:Does it matter? (Score:5, Informative)
True, but that is simply data visualization and has nothing to do with augmented reality. Augmented reality specifically allows you to see reality, and then augments that visions with synthetic enhancements overlayed upon it.
Nevermind Google Glass isn't even AR (Score:4, Informative)
It's even dumber than that. Google Glass doesn't 'overlay' anything. It's a screen above your field of view.
How do stories like this get approved?
Well, you did ask (Score:4, Informative)