Star Wars Story Telling Coming to Oculus

Not Your Dad's Nintendo Virtual Boy.

This is the dawn of a new age of technological advancement and augmented reality, and no one knows that better than Inustrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound both founded by George Lucas in 1975. Star Wars has always been the series that pushed the boundaries of what can and can not be done in the realm of storytelling, and they're doing it again in a very serious way.

Oculus has been building some heavy steam with their virtual reality headset in the past two years since their inception, and with filmmakers at Lucasfilm eager to get started on a brand new era in storytelling makes for an entirely new user experience . Shocking the world with the announcement of ILMxLAB, a new wave research and development group that will change the very way we interact with movies. No longer being bound to two dimensional story telling ILMxLAB is breaking new ground and building new worlds to immerse moviegoers into the world of Star Wars.

One demonstration gave the viewer complete control over where they were looking as R2D2 and C3PO hid from a Stormtrooper, as another scene puts you right in the cockpit as you pilot an X-Wing. You won't actually be able to control the star ship in the story like a video game, but that's not to say they haven't set their sights on that medium yet either. So far they have created a “sandbox” program that resembles the plant Tatooine so they can begin building and testing ideas.

The team at ILMxLAB works hand in hand with Walt Disney Imagineers at their theme park stating that they are cut from the same cloth when discussing bringing world-building and storytelling to the audience and obtaining an emotional response from users. Soon we'll be seeing their work in real world places such as theme parks, movie theaters, and malls. There's no telling what new ground they will be able to cover with virtual and augmented reality.

No matter how technology advances in the future, Lucasfilm and Star Wars will always be at the front lines breaking barriers and moving forward in this brave new world.