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Tag: Oculus VR

  • Big Tech Won’t Build Products That Are Part of the Kill Chain, Says Anduril Founder

    Big Tech Won’t Build Products That Are Part of the Kill Chain, Says Anduril Founder

    “I don’t think that Microsoft, Amazon, or any of these big tech companies are going to go all-in and say we are going to build products that are going to be controversial, part of the kill chain, and designed specifically for DoD,” says the founder of Oculus VR and Anduril, Palmer Luckey. “Because if it reduces their consumer enterprise sales by one percent or increases controversy by one percent it’s likely not worth doing.”

    Luckey added, “I don’t think that the United States leads in the technologies that are going to be relevant to the warfare of the future. I think that the US is falling behind in areas like autonomy and artificial intelligence.”

    Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus VR and Anduril, discusses how Anduril can compete and win against behemoth defense contractors and big tech in an interview on CNBC:

    Big Tech Won’t Build Products That Are Part of the Kill Chain

    No, (I don’t think Microsoft is a rival to Anduril). Actually, I think that we’re going to be doing a lot of work with Microsoft on a lot of this stuff. You’re not going to have one company owning everything anyway. I’m glad that Microsoft and Amazon are vigorously competing for this Jedi contract. Contrast that with Google that dropped out because they said they couldn’t be sure the government was going to abide to their internal corporate ethics principles. I think that there’s a big difference though between what Amazon and Microsoft are doing with Jedi and what we’re doing. Microsoft has said that the military will always have access to their best technology and that’s true. But they also are selling to everyone. They’re building a product that’s for everyone.

    Everything that we’re building is specifically for the Department of Defense. We’re not going out there and saying, let’s resell the thing where we make 90 percent of our money in the consumer or the enterprise space. We’re going to say what do they need and what is the absolute perfect thing? I don’t think that Microsoft, Amazon, or any of these big tech companies are going to go all-in and say we are going to build products that are going to be controversial, part of the kill chain, and designed specifically for DoD. Because if it reduces their consumer enterprise sales by one percent or increases controversy by one percent it’s likely not worth doing.

    US Is Falling Behind In Autonomy and Artificial Intelligence

    In China, you have lots of new companies doing defense work and lots of consumer technology companies doing really strong defense. China has a very strong pipeline from new tech to military deployment. I think the United States knows that they can learn a little bit from that and that they’re going to have to if they’re going to keep up with our adversaries who are honestly much better at that innovation pipeline than we are right now.

    I think that we lead right now especially when it comes to conventional military force and when it comes to conventional military operations. I don’t think that the United States leads in the technologies that are going to be relevant to the warfare of the future. I think that the US is falling behind in areas like autonomy and artificial intelligence. I think that China has structural advantages over the United States because they’re willing to surveil their entire population and use it as a training system for their artificial intelligence models. I’m not saying that we should do that. I’m very much against that in fact. But we do have to realize that China has certain structural advantages.

    In China, the government by law is able to take any technology they want from the private sector and use it for military purposes. In the United States, we’re lucky that our companies are even able to say I don’t want to work with the government. I don’t agree with Google’s decision to pull out of the Jedi contract, for example, but I am very supportive of their right to do so. Again, I’m not saying we need to be more like China on this. I think that would be terrible. But we do have to recognize that there are structural advantages in what they’re doing and so we have to not just do the same thing they’re doing. We have to try new things, better things, and alternate routes where they don’t really have such a strong advantage.

    Lockheed, Raytheon Do Not Have The Best New Tech Talent

    I think our (smaller) size actually works in our favor. If it was a big landscape of smaller highly competitive players I think we actually would have a harder time raising money. As it is investors look and they say, hey, the whole field is dominated by a handful of players that make all of the money. They’re old, they’re very slow-moving, they don’t have all the best talent. That type of market is the one where you can believe the most that somebody can come in and disrupt it.

    We’re a defense technology company first. We’re not a consumer technology company dabbling in defense work. We from day one said what can we develop that really helps the US Department of Defense and that helps keep America and our allies safe. That’s why we’re building artificial intelligence powered hardware and software. I think that we have a few big competitive advantages. The first thing is that we have a really strong team that comes from areas where the experts in autonomy, computer vision, machine learning, networking, those types of things, actually are. 

    Lockheed, Raytheon, the traditional defense primes, they’re good at building aircraft carriers and good at building fighter interceptors but they do not have the world’s best talent when it comes to artificial intelligence, computer vision, and machine learning. That’s why our company is focusing on that. We think we can add a lot of value there that other people cannot necessarily add.

    Big Tech Won’t Build Products That Are Part of the Kill Chain, Says Anduril Founder Palmer Luckey


  • John Carmack Stepping Down As Oculus CTO To Focus On AI Research

    John Carmack Stepping Down As Oculus CTO To Focus On AI Research

    John Carmack is a legend in the video game community, having co-founded id Software and taken the lead on ground-breaking games such as Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein 3D, Rage and others. More recently, he has held the role of CTO at Oculus VR.

    Now, in a Facebook post, Carmack has announced he is resigning his position to pursue AI research. He plans on being a “consulting CTO” for Oculus, but only in a modest role.

    “Starting this week, I’m moving to a ‘Consulting CTO’ position with Oculus.

    “I will still have a voice in the development work, but it will only be consuming a modest slice of my time.

    “As for what I am going to be doing with the rest of my time: When I think back over everything I have done across games, aerospace, and VR, I have always felt that I had at least a vague ‘line of sight’ to the solutions, even if they were unconventional or unproven. I have sometimes wondered how I would fare with a problem where the solution really isn’t in sight. I decided that I should give it a try before I get too old.

    “I’m going to work on artificial general intelligence (AGI).

    “I think it is possible, enormously valuable, and that I have a non-negligible chance of making a difference there, so by a Pascal’s Mugging sort of logic, I should be working on it.

    “For the time being at least, I am going to be going about it ‘Victorian Gentleman Scientist’ style, pursuing my inquiries from home, and drafting my son into the work.

    Runner up for next project was cost effective nuclear fission reactors, which wouldn’t have been as suitable for that style of work. 😊”

    If Carmack’s new focus has even a fraction of the success he’s enjoyed in the gaming industry, the AI field will likely reap significant benefits from his participation.

  • Oculus Rift Pre-Orders Begin Later This Year, VR Device Ships Early 2016

    Oculus Rift Pre-Orders Begin Later This Year, VR Device Ships Early 2016

    The Facebook-owned virtual reality company Oculus has announced that its headset, the Oculus Rift, is almost ready to go.

    You’ll be able to pre-order an Oculus Rift later this year and the device will ship early next year. The finished consumer edition “builds on the presence, immersion, and comfort of the Crescent Bay prototype with an improved tracking system that supports both seated and standing experiences, as well as a highly refined industrial design, and updated ergonomics for a more natural fit.”

    The announcement from Oculus, while exciting, is a bit vague.

    “The Rift delivers on the dream of consumer VR with compelling content, a full ecosystem, and a fully-integrated hardware/software tech stack designed specifically for virtual reality. It’s a system designed by a team of extremely passionate gamers, developers, and engineers to reimagine what gaming can be,” says the company.

    No word on whether or not the Oculus Rift will ship with its own platform to run the VR device, or if users will need a third-party system to run it – but “full ecosystem” sounds promising.

    Also no word on games or other software at ship time, just a promise to reveal more information in the weeks ahead. “In the weeks ahead, we’ll be revealing the details around hardware, software, input, and many of our unannounced made-for-VR games and experiences coming to the Rift,” says Oculus.

    Also no word on final price. Oculus has previously stated that it would like to keep it somewhere between $200 and $400.

    Above is what the first generation of Oculus Rift looks like. The company says it’s going to transform gaming, film, communications, and more. Communication? That’s likely Facebook’s hand in this. You knew it would be somewhere.

  • Facebook Is Making Virtual Reality Apps

    Facebook Is Making Virtual Reality Apps

    For those who feel they aren’t already immersed in the world of Facebook, the company is working on making the service a reality.

    Well, a virtual reality.

    According to Facebook head of product Chris Cox, the company is already building virtual reality versions of its apps. He made the announcement at the Code/Media conference, saying that the company is working on them, but Facebook virtual reality is a long way away.

    “We’re working on apps for VR,” he said. “You’ll do it. Beyoncé will do it…”, but it’ll “probably be a while.”

    Of course, this all makes sense considering Facebook’s recent buy of Oculus VR, makers of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset.

    Though Zuckerberg promised that gaming would be front and center with the newly acquired VR technology, he did hint at his desire to build out the Oculus platform to focus on other uses:

    “But this is just the start. After games, we’re going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences. Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face — just by putting on goggles in your home. This is really a new communication platform. By feeling truly present, you can share unbounded spaces and experiences with the people in your life. Imagine sharing not just moments with your friends online, but entire experiences and adventures,” said Zuckerberg at the time of the acquisition.

    “These are just some of the potential uses. By working with developers and partners across the industry, together we can build many more. One day, we believe this kind of immersive, augmented reality will become a part of daily life for billions of people.”

    Oculus itself recently announced a bunch of new talent acquisitions.

    Image via Oculus

  • Oculus Acquires the Team That Designed the Xbox 360 Controller

    Oculus Acquires the Team That Designed the Xbox 360 Controller

    The Facebook-owned Oculus VR, makers of the Oculus Rift, have just announced the acquisition of Carbon Design, whom they call “one of the premier industrial design and product engineering teams in the country.”

    Exact terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Oculus says that it should close later this summer.

    According to Oculus, the Carbon Design team will split their time between the Carbon studio in Seattle and the Oculus research and development offices in Redmond, WA.

    Although they are just announcing the acquisition now, Carbon Design has been working with Oculus on “multiple unannounced projects” for over a year.

    “A few seconds with the latest Oculus prototypes and you know that virtual reality is for real this time. From a design and engineering perspective, building the products that finally deliver consumer virtual reality is one of the most interesting and challenging problem sets ever,” said Carbon Design creative director Peter Bristol. “This is an entirely open product category. With consumer VR at its inception, the physical architectures are still unknown – We’re on the cutting edge of defining how virtual reality looks, feels, and functions.We’re incredibly excited to be part of the team and we’re looking forward to helping design the future.”

    The name Carbon Design might not rings any bells – but I guarantee you know their work. Among other things, Carbon Design is responsible for the look of the Xbox 360 controller, as well as the first-gen Kinect.

    Image via OculusVR.com

  • Facebook’s Impact on Oculus Rift? Cost, Says CEO

    Facebook’s Impact on Oculus Rift? Cost, Says CEO

    To the people who invested the most in Oculus VR and their nascent virtual reality company – the ones who donated to its Kickstarter campaign and eagerly followed the technology as it matured – Facebook’s surprise acquisition was a walk into a room, record-scratching, head-turning, what the absolute f*ck moment.

    The big question was what the hell is Facebook going to do to it?

    Well, according to Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe, the initial impact of having Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg around could be in the first consumer Oculus Rift’s price.

    Here’s what Iribe told Ars Technica:

    “I think [the Facebook buyout] is going to allow us to deliver consumer V1 at a lower cost, because we’re not trying to drive a high margin on this. [Facebook CEO] Mark [Zuckerberg], especially, wants to bring the cost down, him more than me. I do, too, but at the same time we were planning to run a business, hopefully a break-even [or] profitable business off of this, not a money-losing business. Mark is much more in the mindset of ‘Let’s get this to scale with the best quality product at the lowest cost possible.’”

    He continues:

    “I’m hopeful we’re not going to be losing money on [the hardware], but I think everybody agrees that if we can do it at cost that would be great for everybody. As Mark says, as you start to get to race to scale there are a lot of opportunities to monetize that are really great for consumers, because they get a really low-cost product.”

    So, both Iribe and Zuckerberg (and the latter to a higher degree) feel that selling at cost would be great for everybody. Not that that’s going to happen, but it sure sounds like Iribe knows the first consumer version of the Oculus Rift isn’t going to be a money-making machine.

    In fact, he told Ars that he’s just looking for a little over a million units sold in the first Oculus Rift’s lifetime.

    Iribe went on say that as far as the actual composition of the device, Facebook’s acquisition came too late in the game to have much of an effect. But,

    “It is going to allow us to deliver a much better consumer V2, that’s for sure. Hardware-wise, we were pretty locked in already [for Version 1]…but [Facebook] will allow us to make consumer V2 totally incredible.”

    Or make V2 super creepy. We’ll have to wait and see about that one. V1 will be out next year.

    Image via OculusVR.com

  • Facebook/Oculus Deal Gets FTC Approval

    Facebook/Oculus Deal Gets FTC Approval

    The Federal Trade Commission has given the thumbs up to the $2 billion deal which sees social media giant Facebook acquiring nascent virtual reality company Oculus VR.

    The U.S. regulatory agency granted the transaction, clearing it of any possible antitrust concerns.

    Facebook announced their intentions to purchase Oculus VR, makers of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, late last month.

    “This is really a new communication platform. By feeling truly present, you can share unbounded spaces and experiences with the people in your life. Imagine sharing not just moments with your friends online, but entire experiences and adventures,” said Zuckerberg at the time of the announcement.

    The deal was not met with celebration from early Oculus supporters, many of whom felt cheated. Oculus Rift was basically launched via a Kickstarter campaign, and many who donated their hard-earned money to the virtual reality device felt (and still feel, I’m sure), betrayed when the company sold out to Facebook–especially for such a hefty figure.

    Plus, all that jazz about “sharing” makes people nervous.

    In one of the more public displays of defiance, Notch famously canceled the idea of Minecraft on the Oculus Rift the day after Facebook announced the acquisition. The reason? Facebook simply “creeps” him out.

    Supporters of the deal argue that it would give Oculus a massive boost in resources to build their products.

    Like it or not, it’s happening. Oculus VR isn’t the only billions-dollar purchase Facebook has made in recent months. The company also acquired messaging company WhatsApp for $19 billion. WhatsApp just crossed the 500 million user mark.

    Image via OculusVR.com

  • Notch Cancels Minecraft For Oculus Rift, Says Facebook ‘Creeps’ Him Out

    The reaction from the Internet over Facebook buying Oculus VR has been all over the place. Some are saying it’s great for the Oculus VR guys as it now gives them the resources to build the platform they’ve always wanted. Others aren’t so happy and claim they’ve lost their indie cred by selling out to Facebook. Despite these varying reactions, it’s not like the Facebook deal led to any canceled games, right?

    Notch unceremoniously announced on Twitter last night that Mojang was in talks with Oculus VR to bring Minecraft to the Oculus Rift. He canceled those talks upon hearing that Facebook bought the company. Why? It’s simple – Facebook “creeps” him out.

    Okay, maybe it’s not as simple as that, but that’s all we had to go on until Notch wrote a lengthy blog post on the potential of virtual reality and his feelings on Facebook. In short, he’s not overly concerned with recent spying revelations or anything like that. Instead, he finds Facebook’s market motives “creepy” and not all that supportive of games. Here’s the relevant bit:

    Facebook is not a company of grass-roots tech enthusiasts. Facebook is not a game tech company. Facebook has a history of caring about building user numbers, and nothing but building user numbers. People have made games for Facebook platforms before, and while it worked great for a while, they were stuck in a very unfortunate position when Facebook eventually changed the platform to better fit the social experience they were trying to build.

    Don’t get me wrong, VR is not bad for social. In fact, I think social could become one of the biggest applications of VR. Being able to sit in a virtual living room and see your friend’s avatar? Business meetings? Virtual cinemas where you feel like you’re actually watching the movie with your friend who is seven time zones away?

    But I don’t want to work with social, I want to work with games.

    Despite the Facebook deal, he has high hopes for virtual reality. He says that Oculus VR has already inspired competitors, like Sony’s Project Morpheus, and that he’ll gladly work on VR with one of them. He just doesn’t want to work with Facebook:

    Fortunately, the rise of Oculus coincided with competitors emerging. None of them are perfect, but competition is a very good thing. If this means there will be more competition, and VR keeps getting better, I am going to be a very happy boy. I definitely want to be a part of VR, but I will not work with Facebook. Their motives are too unclear and shifting, and they haven’t historically been a stable platform. There’s nothing about their history that makes me trust them, and that makes them seem creepy to me.

    It’s not until the end that we hear what may be the central reason for Notch canceling the deal with Oculus VR. In short, he may feel betrayed by the Facebook acquisition:

    And I did not chip in ten grand to seed a first investment round to build value for a Facebook acquisition.

    Well, there you have it. Minecraft will not be coming to the Oculus Rift in any official capacity. There are ways to play Minecraft on the VR headset, however, and Notch himself recommends Minecrift.

    Image via Oculus VR/Minecrift

  • Facebook Acquires Oculus VR For $2 Billion

    When you woke up this morning, did you think Facebook would be acquiring the leader in virtual reality technology? Me neither, but here we are.

    Mark Zuckerberg announced this afternoon that Facebook would be acquiring Oculus VR – the makers of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset – for $2 billion. The company has been working on the Oculus Rift as gaming platform ever since its successful Kickstarter campaign in 2011. Zuckerberg says those plans won’t be changing. Instead, the social network plans on expanding Oculus’ scope to include more than just gaming applications. Here’s what he had to say:

    After games, we’re going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences. Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face — just by putting on goggles in your home.

    This is really a new communication platform. By feeling truly present, you can share unbounded spaces and experiences with the people in your life. Imagine sharing not just moments with your friends online, but entire experiences and adventures.

    These are just some of the potential uses. By working with developers and partners across the industry, together we can build many more. One day, we believe this kind of immersive, augmented reality will become a part of daily life for billions of people.

    Here’s the full announcement:

    Post by Mark Zuckerberg.

    This acquisition is way out of left field and it’s still a little confusing. With it, Facebook is becoming more like Google in that it acquires companies that aren’t related to its core business, but rather just cool side projects that may one day transform how we live our lives. Heck, earlier the month it was reported that Facebook would be buying Titan Aerospace – a company that makes drones. What’s next – the singularity? Oh wait, Zuckerberg is investing in that as well.

    Even Oculus VR understands that this is all a little weird, but says it and Facebook are more alike than you may think:

    At first glance, it might not seem obvious why Oculus is partnering with Facebook, a company focused on connecting people, investing in internet access for the world and pushing an open computing platform. But when you consider it more carefully, we’re culturally aligned with a focus on innovating and hiring the best and brightest; we believe communication drives new platforms; we want to contribute to a more open, connected world; and we both see virtual reality as the next step.

    Most important, Facebook understands the potential for VR. Mark and his team share our vision for virtual reality’s potential to transform the way we learn, share, play, and communicate. Facebook is a company that believes that anything is possible with the right group of people, and we couldn’t agree more.

    This partnership is one of the most important moments for virtual reality: it gives us the best shot at truly changing the world. It opens doors to new opportunities and partnerships, reduces risk on the manufacturing and work capital side, allows us to publish more made-for-VR content, and lets us focus on what we do best: solving hard engineering challenges and delivering the future of VR.

    Despite still feeling a little weird about all this, I can’t wait until I can hang out with my friends without having to leave the house. It won’t be long till we’re all stuck in our homes socializing via virtual reality.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons