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Facebook's making realistic VR avatars that look just like you IRL

2025-04-27 05:31:48

Facebook has big plans for blurring reality and virtual reality.

During its F8 Day 2 keynote, the company said it's working on creating photorealistic VR avatars that look just like you IRL. And well... they're kind of creepy.

SEE ALSO: Facebook's dating service hasn't even launched yet, and we already know it's for old people

Currently, Facebook's VR avatars, available in Facebook Spaces, look like cartoons. Despite improving its cheesy-looking VR avatars with greater detail and better face and mouth-tracking for more realistic expressions, the cartoony designs are a turn-off for some people. Our very own tech reporter Rachel Kraus is not about the cartoony looks.

Who can forget how incredibly corny it was when Facebook announced taking VR selfies? Instead of a portrait of your real face, your selfie is of your cartoon avatar.

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Here's how Facebook's VR avatars have evolved over the years:

Mashable ImageVR avatars have come a long way. Credit: facebook

And here's what they look like compared to their users:

Mashable ImageCurrent Facebook VR avatars are anything but realistic. Credit: facebook

Though Facebook didn't get into any of the nitty gritty details on how it's making avatars more realistic, we can see there's some kind of motion capture technology mapping faces as evidenced by all the little capture points on a VR user's face.

Mashable ImageCool or creepy? Credit: facebook

Facebook's photorealistic VR avatars will make presence feel that much more real in the virtual world, but at what point is too real for its own good? We only got a glimpse of the realistic avatars, but they're eerily close to the uncanny valley.


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