Adrian Wong spent three and a half years as Google Glass’ lead electrical engineer – but left at the start of this month to work on a chunkier set of goggles.
Wong lists himself as a “professional daydreamer” on LinkedIn, but his new role at Oculus will see him “Building the Metaverse” for the commercial Rift headset.
Wong had been with Google since December 2010. Given Oculus VR’s recent Facebook acquisition, that’s a Cold War-style defection.
Before Google, Wong worked for US national security specialists Sandia National Laboratories – so classic double agent material.
“Surprise! Today is my last day at Google,” Wong told colleagues via Facebook on May 2. “Three rollercoaster years with Google[x] and Glass. What amazing memories. Now, time for the next great adventure!”
Wong worked as a hardware engineering manager on the consumer Google Glass’ systems and camera, which probably makes him Facebook’s second-best acquisition in the last few weeks.
Though as Oculus hoover up yet another id veteran, their game dev team is looking just as strong, wouldn’t you say?
Thanks to TechCrunch and Polygon.