McCauley: Facebook, Ray-Ban AR a Long-Term Win
By RORY GREENER
Jack McCauley, former Oculus Co-Founder and Engineer, held a keynote speech on his time at the California-based company, where he paved the foundations for the 2014 Facebook acquisition.
During his speech, McCauley explained Facebook’s recent partnership with Rayban to produce a pair of augmented reality (AR) smartglasses, stating:
“It’s a beginning for them […] The Rayban Glasses, that’s a great idea. That has legs, the team at Seattle, with their vast experience, will be able to make that work”
Facebook released the smartglasses in early September, marking a debut in the AR sector along with virtual reality (VR) launches with the Oculus Quest 2.
McCauley added in the future, the partnership will prove beneficial as AR technology emerges, concluding,
“The AR experience with the Rayban glasses is a win for them, not in the short term, but in the long term”
Building a Foundation for Facebook
Jack McCauley segued into discussing his earlier work at Oculus and how he became involved with the firm’s industry-changing VR technologies.
Previously, McCauley gained experience with GlobalVR, a disbanded distributor of arcade VR experiences. He described the experience as “primitive”, but added he gained valuable early insights into the prospects of VR before joining Oculus founders Brandan Iribe and Lucky Palmer.
“I put it [the Oculus headset] on, took a look at it, and was blown away. Being a software engineer and working at Guitar Hero, which sold 64 million pieces, I didn’t see the legs in it at all. I said, ‘It’s probably expensive, there’s no content at all, apart from a demo and that’s an uphill battle'”
McCauley was initially sceptical, but ultimately impressed by Iribe, whose business accruement became a convincing factor in McCauley’s involvement.
“My confidence was in him [Brendan Iribe], and I liked [Lucky] Palmer, I felt fatherly towards Palmer [as] I was lot older. So I just liked the people, and if I like the people, I’ll go work there”
McCauley initially worked with Oculus as a software developer for the first Oculus development kit, which launched on Kickstarter in 2012, raising $2.4 million from over 9,000 backers.
The Oculus team then trialled the development kit version with Mark Zuckerberg, launching the foundation for the monumental $2 billion USD acquisition.
