[Another creative use for presence; this story is from Digital Trends, where it includes the 4:58 minute video of the proposal. More details and pictures can be found in SlashGear’s coverage and with the video on YouTube. –Matthew]
Watch this man propose to his girlfriend with a VR headset
By Andy Boxall — April 8, 2015
Mike Rios doesn’t do simple marriage proposals. When he decided to pop the question to his girlfriend Maggie Jensen, he went all out to make it as memorable as possible. How do we know this? Because he turned the whole thing into a viral video extravaganza.
The proposal took place in Pasadena, California, where the pair first met five years ago. Mike had actually asked Maggie if she would marry him then, but this time it was serious. A short while before the day, he used a Nexus 5 to take Photosphere pictures of their friends holding up signs about his first words to her.
When Maggie arrived, she was given a Google Cardboard VR viewer and a pair of headphones, oblivious to what was coming. She went on her virtual reality experience, seeing the pictures Mike had shot complete with a special soundtrack played over the headphones, while all those same friends gathered around her.
Many proposals would stop there. The surprise of finding all those people gathered after taking off the headset would have been enough, but not for Mike. Instead, all their friends danced to Kiss The Girl, a song from The Little Mermaid, accompanied by a Mariachi band. Then, finally, Mike presented her with an engagement ring.
Everything was captured on video, uploaded to YouTube, and quickly spread around the Internet. The event even has its own hashtags, #surpriseVRproposal, and #MnMProposal; plus a press release was sent around to make sure no-one missed out on the story. Adorable marriage proposal, or cunning self-promotion for some unnamed future endeavor? We’ll have to wait and see.
Virtual reality is slowly weaving its way into our personal lives, and in addition to this proposal-by-VR, we’ve recently seen the Samsung-backed birth-by-VR. What’s next?