SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Oculus is expanding its highly anticipated virtual-reality headset to simulate the sensation of touch and gesturing as part of its quest to blur the lines between the fake and genuine world.
The touch controllers unveiled Thursday by Oculus founder Palmer Luckey are designed to enable people to pick up guns, throw Frisbees or carry out other actions within the fantasy scenes they see through a virtual reality headset called the Rift. The controllers also will make it possible to point, wave inside the video games being played on the Rift, according to Luckey.
The half-moon shaped controllers, called Oculus Touch, will be showcased along with the Rift headset next week in Los Angeles at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, a major video game conference.
“We really think Oculus Touch is going to surprise you,” Luckey, 22, said. “We think they are going to deliver an entirely new set of virtual reality experiences.”
Besides showing off its latest gadgetry, Oculus also provided a glimpse at the line-up of video games being designed for the Rift and announced a partnership with Microsoft to make the headset compatible with the Xbox console and devices running on the next version of the Windows operating system scheduled to be released next month.