SKT lets people try out VR movie dates
SK Telecom’s latest product allows people to date and hang out with friends without leaving the house
using virtual reality technology. Korea’s largest mobile carrier released Oksusu Social VR today. The
service adds VR technology to the carrier’s mobile video streaming platform Oksusu. The service takes
users to a virtual space where they can view content on Oksusu and move around in avatar forms
together with friends. Up to eight people can create a room together to enjoy sports, movies and
concerts together inside the virtual space. Inside the rooms, avatars can communicate with each
other using users’ own voices or through text chat.
“Even if you are wearing pajamas at home, you will still be able to have a perfect virtual date using the
avatar you decorated,” said Jeon Jin-soo, the leader of the augmented reality and VR lab at SK Telecom’s
Media Technology R&D Center. According to SK, the virtual space will have five different types of rooms:
a living room, movie theater, concert hall, sports room and E-sports room. In each space, participants
can enjoy different content together. At the movie theater, participants can watch a movie together and
in the sports room they can watch live sports broadcasts together. SK said more types of rooms will be
added to cover more types of content in the future. Each room is private and can have as many as
eight participants. They can also throw popcorn, eggs or cola at the screen to boo at a performance.
The avatars can also switch seats in the room for a better view of the broadcast. Depending on where
users sit in the room or who you sit close to, the view of the content changes and the volume of the
sound also changes. Currently, only the live-streaming content on Oksusu is linked to Oksusu
Social VR service, but by the end of the year, more videos and movies will also be available,
according to the company. Oksusu social VR system works with two VR headsets for now -
Google Daydream and Samsung Electronics’ Gear VR.