On Wednesday, Google is holding its annual conference that the company uses as a launching pad for its latest innovations and products. This year, the search giant is expected to jump on the bandwagon of virtual reality and artificial intelligence.
Even though Google has kept silent over its plans until the big event, the conference agenda that was revealed clearly hints to virtual reality and artificial intelligence as the focal points.
Words like “machine learning” that are in the plan spurred speculation that Google will soon be releasing a VR headset to compete with Facebook’s new Oculus Rift device, but also with Samsung’s Gear VR and the Vive from HTC and Valve.
The conference will be packed with bloggers and reporters from around the world, ensuring that whatever the company presents to the audience will be featured in stories, articles, and pictures delivered to the larger public.
Thousands of computer programmers will also attend the three-day showcase, presenting Google with the opportunity to convince them why they should develop apps and other services compatible with its gadgets and its Android operating system for mobile devices.
About 80 percent of the world’s smartphones are powered by Android, probably because Google allows any device maker to use the software for free.
The search giant affords that because once you have Android on your phone, you also get a package of Google’s services, such as its search engine, maps, and others. These, in turn, give Google the opportunity to include the digital ads that represent a large source of its revenue.
This year’s conference – called Google I/O – is being held at an amphitheater a few blocks from its headquarters in Mountain View, California. With a seat capacity of more than 6,000, the new amphitheater could accommodate a way larger crowd than Google’s former San Francisco venue from the past years.
It would not be Google’s first dive into virtual reality as two years ago the company unveiled an inexpensive headset called Google Cardboard. But the new efforts are expected to be more serious, given the sophisticated options that are now available for sale.
Virtual reality is presented by analysts as the next big thing in the technology realm, which creates an artificial, three-dimensional world for the user. At the same time, artificial intelligence is also touted as the tech that will create software acting and behaving as humans.
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