Apparently, Oculus Rift compatibility for Netflix is something that you don't know you need until you get a taste of it.
Last Netflix Hack Day Gave Us This Sleep Tracker
Yesterday, Netflix posted the results of its Hack Day Summer 2014, a 24-hour period where coders work through the night to develop and program new applications that give new perspective on how people interact with Netflix. According to Netflix, more than 50 new programs came out of the hack day, some of which are actually kind of cool. One that stands out, though, is something called Oculix, a Netflix interface utilizing the Oculus Rift.
The demo video shows one hacker strapped into Oculus' virtual reality getup, navigating a virtual library of Netflix's titles, using a simple hand swipe to scroll up and down through the wall of movies and shows. Once a title is selected, the user is thrown into a virtual theater to watch the selection. It's a surprisingly immersive way to watch a dramatic show like House of Cards where lounging on a couch and staring at your MacBook just doesn't seem to do it justice.
Watch Someone Play Pokémon With The Oculus Rift
Several other cool demo videos came out of Netflix's Hack Day, and they can all be found on the Netflix tech blog. Ideas like a system that changes the lighting in your room to complement your video selection and a Netflix command line interface are some of the interesting, if impractical, applications that Netflix's inspired hackers came up with. Of course, Netflix warns that there are no plans to implement any of these projects on a public level. The point of the Netflix Hack Day, it says, is more about giving hackers a chance to experiment and have fun.
But now that we know something like Oculix exists, we can still dream.
