Inside Mark Zuckerberg's vision for your Facebook augmented reality

MENLO PARK, Calif. — Mark Zuckerberg is sitting ramrod straight on the edge of a gray couch, sketching a vision of what Facebook will soon be like for its nearly 2 billion users.

A blank wall turns into a 3-D art display with an animated, infinite rainbow waterfall — just by holding up a smartphone and viewing it through the camera.

That future is now. This Millennial-inspired wall canvas is just a short distance from where the Facebook CEO is discussing his company's new camera platform before it opened up to software developers at the company's annual conference on Tuesday.

"There are groups of people just staring and admiring this wall which looks blank," Zuckerberg told USA TODAY from his glass-walled conference room at the heart of Facebook's sprawling campus here.

"That's going to be a thing in the future, all of this art all over the place. I think it's really neat," he said. "We even put a plaque up on the wall to commemorate it. It's one of the first pieces of augmented reality street art in the world."

The world's most populous social network is poised to create a generation of new apps that it's betting will catapult augmented reality into the mainstream, the same way it made personal status updates and viral mobile games part of the daily, unthinking habits of billions.

Fans of multi-player video game Mass Effect: Andromeda can don a Mass Effect-themed helmet mask effect for use with the front camera, then flip the camera to view stats from your latest mission using data from the game — basically a dynamic leader board in a 3-D space. You can also pan your phone to experience game visuals that augment the world around, bringing the scene from the game to life.

Soon fans will cheer on soccer team Manchester United with real-time data and video from the match. When ManU scores, it shows up in Facebook as a big flashing “GOALLLL” as you hear the roar of the crowd and confetti flies.

In his signature gray T-shirt and jeans, Zuckerberg, 32, is in the zone, describing this very near future that is deeply entwined with his view of how communication is evolving, from text to photo to video and now, digitally altered physical reality — all via the Facebook app on your smartphone.

Facebook has poured billions of dollars into artificial intelligence research and virtual reality development, including its $3 billion acquisition of pioneering virtual reality headset maker Oculus. Yet virtual reality hasn't really taken off yet, partially hobbled by the bulkiness of headsets and the expense of computing gear, as well as people's general unfamiliarity with it.

We're already augmenting our realities

Along the way, Facebook came to a simple realization. "A lot of the use cases for augmented reality, people have started to do on phones and cameras," Zuckerberg says.

So far augmented reality on smartphones has been pretty primitive: mostly silly or entertaining masks, filters and frames. Rival Snapchat and last year's hit game Pokemon Go have been the closest to ushering in the augmented reality age. But those uses are rudimentary compared to Zuckerberg's ambitions. And Facebook's reach is far bigger than either app.

"People aren't using primitive tools because they prefer primitive tools. They are using primitive tools because we are still early in the journey in developing better tools," Zuckerberg says.

Soon, says Zuckerberg, everyday life will get an augmented reality jolt in three ways: by using the Facebook camera to display information on the real world, add digital objects in it and and enhance existing objects.

Picture trying to keep your children entertained at the doctor's office. Instead of dragging along a bag of toys, Zuckerberg says kids will play augmented reality games with smartphones, using the waiting room table as the game board. "Through the lens of the camera you can see this tower defense game where all these bad guys come in and you have to swat them in order for them to go away before they get to you," he says.

No need to carve your initials in the bark of that old tree or in the table of your favorite dive bar, soon you will be able to do that digitally. Same for leaving a note for your spouse or kids on the refrigerator. That, too, can now be digitally rendered.

One of Zuckerberg's favorite new augmented reality experiences was built by Nike. The Facebook CEO, whose personal goal last year was to run 365 miles, says the Nike+ Run Club augmented reality app will overlay information around you as you run and share your run with friends. It also features lighthearted effects, such as putting you in a headband and drenching you in cartoon sweat.

"It's cute," Zuckerberg says.

'Platonic form' of mixing digital and virtual reality

But it's not just a gimmick. True to Facebook's origin as a way to connect with classmates, Zuckerberg sees this augmented reality as a way to make online relationships more real and real-life relationships better.

"The idea is that when you become friends with someone on Facebook, your relationship gets stronger in real life. You bring your community online and your physical community gets stronger," Zuckerberg says. "So it's not one or the other, you can actually mix these two together. And what augmented reality is like in a lot of ways is the platonic form of being able to mix digital and virtual reality."

To fuse these two realities, Zuckerberg envisions one day wearing natural-feeling, lightweight glasses or contact lenses that overlay all kinds of digital content and information on the physical world.

"If you want to play chess, great, here's a chess board," says Zuckerberg, pantomiming placing a chess board between us on his conference room coffee table. "You have your glasses and I have mine. And even though it's not a real board, we can play and it feels like it's real."

Not in the mood for chess? How about watching a TV show together? "We don't need a physical TV. We can buy a $1 app TV and put it on the wall and watch it," Zuckerberg says. "It's actually pretty amazing when you think about how much of the physical stuff we have doesn't need to be physical. It could just be digital and created by kids all around the world who don't need access to a factory to build a TV."

Another neat trick in the age of augmented reality glasses: "You will be able to look around and your friends will have annotated things," Zuckerberg says.

More:

Watch out, Snapchat: Facebook launches Stories, camera effects

Facebook making moves to become 'video first'

Facebook focuses on Snapchat-like camera

Facebook aims for Snapchat-like camera-centric focus

Out to dinner at a friend's neighborhood joint, next to that night's specials might be a note left by a friend telling you what to order and what to avoid.

All of the 3-D objects software developers build today will lay the groundwork for the digital world to meld with the physical one, Zuckerberg says.

"One day, five to seven years from now, when we actually have the glasses that we want, there will be all this content that you can start to interact with."

He cautions much of augmented reality will take time to develop. But it's hard for Zuckerberg to mask his enthusiasm. Nearly all of his Facebook posts in the run-up to the F8 conference have featured camera effects, like the one that has him sporting a glitter beard: "Working on F8 and badly need to shave."

"I'm not subtle," he says, laughing. "I'm really excited about this."

Follow USA TODAY senior technology writer Jessica Guynn @jguynn