Mark Zuckerberg's vision for Facebook's futuristic virtual reality headset: 'It will be pretty wild'

Mark Zuckberberg has expanded upon Facebook's ambitious plans for its Oculus Rift virtual reality headset technology in a Q&A on his profile page, saying the company's mission is "to give people power to experience anything."

The 30-year-old Facebook founder and CEO says his company wants to use Oculus Rift, which it acquired in March 2014 for $2 billion, to "build a medium" that will let people do things they could never normally do, whether that's travelling somewhere, being with someone in person, or even "something ... physically impossible to build in our analog world."

Zuckerberg also suggests its uses for communication, envisioning a future in which people capture virtual reality-compatible media "just like we capture photos and videos today," and share it online with others. This would need an entirely new category on media-capture technology - one that Facebook would presumably build.

Overall, he says, "it will be pretty wild."

Here's Mark Zuckerberg's full message:

Our mission [is] to give people the power to experience anything. Even if you don't have the ability to travel somewhere, or to be with someone in person, or even if something is physically impossible to build in our analog world, the goal is to help build a medium that will give you the ability to do all of these things you might not otherwise be able to do. This will be incredibly powerful as a communication medium as well. Just like we capture photos and videos today and then share them on the internet to let others experience them too, we'll be able to capture whole 3D scenes and create new environments and then share those with people as well. It will be pretty wild.

And here's a photo of an Oculus Rift prototype: