Facebook and Oculus Want Your Head and Hands in Virtual Space

(bluesy hip hop music)

So here it is.

This is it.

This is the Oculus Rift.

[Narrator] Today Facebook and Oculus officially unveiled

the Rift virtual reality headset in San Francisco.

It's light, you can hold it with one hand.

[Narrator] The device will hit shelves in early 2016,

and will pair, in a way,

with Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system.

Pricing hasn't been set but Oculus has previously said

it will cost less than 15 hundred dollars.

Since acquiring Oculus last year,

Facebook has touted Rift

as a way to transform social networking.

At least initially the headset will be used

primarily for gaming,

a point underscored by today's keynote.

This is Oculus Touch.

These are going to take virtual reality gaming

to the next level.

[Narrator] The company also showed off

a pair of prototype hand controllers that will allow users

to put their virtual hands in the virtual world.

Users could shoot virtual guns or pick up virtual stuff.

It could not only navigate the digital universe,

they could become a part of it.

And that is at least a small first step towards the kind

of virtual reality social networking envisioned by Facebook.