Facebook loses Mary Lou Jepsen, key player in VR push - CNET

Mary Lou Jepsen, a key figure in Facebook's virtual reality ambitions, is leaving the company after a little more than a year at the social-networking giant.

Jepsen, who was the executive director of engineering at Facebook and the head of display tech at its Oculus virtual reality arm, aounced her resignation Thursday evening at the Anita Borg Women of Vision Awards, in Santa Clara, Califoia. Jepsen said she is tuing her attention to curing diseases using MRI images in the form of consumer wearable .

"I'm setting off in a new direction," she told a room full of attendees. "I never stopped dreaming how to create a wearable to communicate with our thoughts. How to do this at consumer electronics pricing. I want to get this to every doctor in the world."

Jepsen's departure comes as Facebook ramps up its emphasis on virtual reality, a burgeoning field that promises to transport headset-wearing users to an immersive, computer-generated environment, be it floating through outerspace or walking with dinosaurs.

But Faacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has much grander visions. He sees a future where education, communication and entertainment take place inside virtual worlds that we all see through these headsets.