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Facebook, Oculus unveil Santa Cruz, a standalone VR prototype

This is next-level virtual reality.

 

Monica Riese

Tech

Posted on Oct 7, 2016   Updated on May 25, 2021, 8:32 pm CDT

Thanks to Facebook and Oculus, virtual reality headsets might be going solo.

On Tuesday, during an Oculus Connect developers conference, Mark Zuckerberg (reminder: Facebook acquired Oculus in 2014) unveiled the Santa Cruz prototype.

Until now, experiencing VR meant a big, clunky headset and being tethered to a PC or mobile device to process the game or program you were in. With Santa Cruz, Oculus has created a standalone device that will let users more freely wander around and explore their surroundings without fear of bumping into walls or reaching the end of their cables.

Here’s the brief introductory video:

Read more about its potential, and why you won’t see this technology taking off outdoors anytime soon, on Mashable.

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*First Published: Oct 7, 2016, 1:23 pm CDT