Oculus recruiting over 100 people ahead of augmented reality expansion
VR pioneer wants to bring everyday AR to a billion people
The firm behind Oculus Rift is currently on a major recruitment drive that will see the company branch further into augmented reality.
Oculus' careers page shows over 100 positions are currently available, 33 of which are for the Redmond-based Oculus Research division. Among those is the AR Incubation Lead role, UploadVR reports.
According to the job listing, the successful candidate will be in charge of the team that will "build augmented reality technology that opens the path the everyday use for a billion people".
Oculus has been the driving force behind the reinvigoration of virtual reality, but has recently hinted at plans to explore the possibilities of AR as well. This was most obvious during the Oculus Connect 3 keynote, where Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg demonstrated an augmented reality chat room with other participants represented by digital avatars.
The recruitment drive also shows a shift from the firm's position earlier this year. When we interviewed head of content Jason Rubin, he said he didn't find augmented reality "as compelling" as virtual reality, adding that AR is "technologically very difficult" and "behind VR".
He added: "The truth of the matter is there's not that much difference between AR and VR. You can have an AR device that blacks out the background entirely and becomes a VR device. You could have a VR device that has some sort of camera and/or the screens are translucent and it becomes an AR device."
Numerous VR and AR experts believe mixed reality, a blend of the two technologies, is the natural endpoint for both markets. Microsoft showed steps towards this last week, demonstrating the new MR functionalities of HoloLens, previously a solely augmented reality device. The firm is also moving in on the virtual reality space with a new range competitively-priced headsets, much to the approval of various analysts.
Much of the rest of Oculus' hiring sprees centres around its software and hardware engineering divisions.
During Oculus Connect 3, chief scientist Michael Abrash pointed to various areas of virtual reality where he expects major technological improvements over the next five years.