During this year’s Facebook Connect conference, the social networking giant showed off a new platform called Presence.It is hoped that developers of Oculus Quest virtual reality (VR) headsets will provide a new way to create mixed reality (MR) experiences. It includes a set of artificial intelligence (AI) toolkits for developers, designed to help create a more immersive environment and help to combine the virtual world with physical reality.
The Presence Platform includes three main toolsets, namely Insight SDK, Interaction SDK, and Voice SDK.
It is reported that Insight is built on the Passthrough API launched this summer, allowing developers to overlay virtual objects on Oculus Quest’s passthrough video source.
Facebook has also introduced a system called Spatial Anchors so that developers can “lock” virtual objects to specific physical areas (corresponding to their location in the mixed reality environment).
It should be pointed out that although the Passthrough API is exclusively for Oculus Quest 2, the new platform also provides support for the two generations of Quest headsets.
In addition, Scene Understanding fills the last link of the Insight SDK, allowing developers to build a VR experience that matches the size of the player’s room.
For example, Facebook says that you can attach a virtual screen to the wall of a user’s home, or let a virtual character navigate on the floor in a fake way.
The second tool set (Interaction SDK) allows developers to easily integrate the interactive experience based on controllers and gestures, and Facebook plans to open the Unity library next year so that developers can integrate existing interactive elements.
In addition to providing an improved hand tracking experience (such as grabbing, hand stamping, selecting targets, etc.), it also allows developers to create custom gestures.
As for the third tool set (Voice SDK Experimental), which is supported by Facebook’s Wit.ai natural language platform, it can bring users a free virtual experience and allow developers to create voice navigation and search functions.
Based on this, players can get answers to common questions in the way of voice questions. And “voice-driven” games allow users to play with their own voices (such as talking with an avatar character, or releasing a spell).
Finally, the recent discussion on “Metaverse” has been a bit intensive, and Facebook also hopes to become a company of this type.
The company said that Presence will be a key platform for developers to integrate VR content with the real world so that they can get connected in the meta-universe.