Facebook has given audiences a glimpse of the future with a demonstration of what it calls "social VR" - connecting two or more people together in a virtual environment.
Speaking at the social networking giant's annual global developers conference in San Francisco, Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer donned an Oculus Rift headset and interacted with Michael Booth, the leader of the Social VR team at the company's Menlo Park headquarters.
The pair were physically separated by a distance of 56 kilometres but were able to interact as though in the same room, thanks to a digital avatar, voice chat, hand gestures and head movements.
During the demo, Schroepfer and Booth were "transported" to a variety of locations, thanks to magical-looking 360 degree picture "orbs" which they could pick up and immerse themselves within.
In one such orb, the pair traveled to London's Big Ben, where they took a selfie and uploaded it to Facebook, much to the audience's amusement.
Facebook is betting big on virtual reality, having acquired the Oculus VR, the manufacturer of the Oculus Rift, for US$2 billion in 2014.
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