Oculus reveals its next big VR trick: Wider-FOV lenses that automatically move

Enlarge / Oculus’s latest headset prototype, the Half Dome, as revealed at the F8 Developer Conference. (credit: Facebook / Oculus)

Oculus is only one day into the launch of a new, $ 199 VR headset, but the company has already begun hinting at the future of its higher-end line of Rift products. Wednesday saw Oculus reveal three interesting new developments for the company’s possible next headset—and the company gave us a visual hint at what it may look like, in the form of a new “Half Dome” prototype.

Half Dome, as shown at the F8 Developer Conference stage on Wednesday, looks almost identical to the existing Oculus Rift, with more noticeable bumps (likely for the sake of positional tracking, but not confirmed). The new stuff is all on the inside, and the most intriguing feature has never been demonstrated in a commercial headset before: a mechanical assembly that quickly moves lenses closer to and farther from a user’s face while they’re using a VR app.