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Facebook, like all tech nerds, has dreams of teleportation.
The company’s chief technical officer, Mike Schroepfer, said the company plans to “effectively build a teleporter,” according to Business Insider.
“Facebook wants to build a device that allows you to be anywhere you want, with anyone, regardless of geographic boundaries,” Schroepfer said Tuesday at a press event before the Dublin Web Summit.
While not a “teleporter” in the traditional sense, Facebook wants to improve upon the virtual reality experience by adding physical feedback, tricking your senses into thinking you’re somewhere you’re not.
The social network has had its sights set on the possibilities of virtual reality for some time, but it remains a somewhat theoretical technology for the average consumer.
Last year, Facebook acquired Oculus VR, and plans to release the Oculus Rift VR headset next year. In June, Oculus revealed the Oculus Touch, which replicates a user’s natural movements in VR. The Touch controllers allow you to see your hands, adding more depth to the experience.
When the Touch begins shipping in the middle of 2016, it will also come with a tool called Medium. Oculus calls it “digital clay” that allows users to sculpt 3D objects using the controllers. You can see it in action in the video below.
In May, Oculus teamed up with Surreal Vision, a computer vision company focused on real-time 3D scene reconstruction. The two companies are trying to build a technology that amounts to live streaming your actual environment into virtual reality. The concept is that the advantages of VR — like manipulating objects that aren’t there — could be added into your real world.
Oculus’ advances with Touch and Surreal Vision are laying the groundwork for Facebook’s plan for advanced VR — but the technology still has quite a ways to go.
