Is VR and AR Video Conferencing a Killer App for This Nascent Market?

Now that many people have to work from home, they are using tools like Web-Ex, Google Hangouts, and other collaboration tools to work with colleagues from disparate locations more frequently.

I have used these forms of collaboration tools for years, and while they work, I am not a big fan of their poor ease of use and UI. That is not to say they are not useful tools, but these apps often have issues when it comes to logging into a conference as well as how well they work in presentation mode.

Another tool that makes it possible for us to work at home and in remote offices around the world effectively is video conferencing. Zoom, Skype video, and others are taking off now and enabling us to connect in new and more personal ways.

However, while these tools also work, especially in face to face video meetings, I find that video conferencing with a lot of people, especially if the video is on participants, is very distracting. I have done a few of these types of video conferences lately, and I turn my camera off intentionally to not be a distraction to others during the meeting.

One thing that strikes me about using these tools at home to have meetings, make presentations and conduct effective interaction is that the face-to-face discussions are still the best way to get the most out of a meeting. I realize that my view is controversial, especially to a younger generation who can even conduct meetings via texting, however when I am in a meeting with my customers and face-to-face, we do get a lot done.

When Facebook bought Oculus, one of the key reasons was for them to create a virtual room where people could sit around a table, or sofa’s in living rooms and communicate in real-time. The early version had what I would call crude avatars represent a person in these rooms.

Eventually, Facebook created Spaces and Oculus rooms, which were exciting but never took off. At Facebook’s developer conference last summer, they replaced these rooms with Facebook Horizon.

Engadget wrote about Horizons and shared the following:

“In Horizon, you’ll be able to create an avatar that, bizarrely, won’t have any legs. You can then use portals (or “telepods”) to make your way to public spaces such as a town square. Horizon will offer exploration and games, along with ways to build communities through groups and events.

“Everyone will have the power to build new worlds and activities, from tropical hangout spots to interactive action arenas, all from scratch — no previous coding experience needed,” Oculus stated in a blog post. “Whether people choose to build, play, or simply hang out, Horizon will ensure a welcoming environment through new safety tools and human guides — Horizon Locals — to answer questions and provide assistance, if needed.”

I realize Horizon is focused on consumers, but it represents an example of using a virtual world for people to get together. And it would not be a stretch of the imagination for Facebook to eventually evolve this platform to include virtual conference rooms that include real live video meetings that have a background that could replicate any company’s conference rooms or even auditoriums.

Another company is creating an AR-mixed reality app that, according to their site, can teleport your presence anywhere. It will let people “Meet with anyone, anywhere in the world as if you were in the same room. Your meetings will jump to life with spatial audio and 3d telepresence that feels like being face to face.”

The company is called Spatial and I encourage you to check out their demo on their home page. It is awe-inspiring and could become a killer app for AR and VR with companies who would prefer meeting as if they are still in the room but piped in virtually from all over the world.

Since I have had more time at home due to the work at home and shelter in place edicts, I have been spending more time on my Oculus Quest VR headset. I Used the original Oculus Go for a year, but the Quest is so superior to the first model that it has changed my view of VR. I had felt that it was a technology that would have greater acceptance in vertical markets and gaming.

I have been using it for streaming videos and many VR travelogues, especially the ones that put me in the location being shown, such as an African Safari and scuba diving with turtles.

One of the most exciting travel videos is the restoration of Notre Dame in Paris. I have been to Notre Dame well over a dozen times and combed it from top to bottom. To walk through the main sanctuary and see up through its roof where the spire once stood was fascinating. The videographer made the tour so realistic in VR mode that one feels like you are there while watching it thousands of miles away.

While the Oculus Quest is still more of a consumer product since it excels in VR gaming, you can see that VR headsets are moving in the right direction. I can see them delivering broader-based applications like VR-AR video conferencing, which could become a killer app that makes VR-AR headsets indispensable to businesses sometime in the future.

Published by

Tim Bajarin

Tim Bajarin is the President of Creative Strategies, Inc. He is recognized as one of the leading industry consultants, analysts and futurists covering the field of personal computers and consumer technology. Mr. Bajarin has been with Creative Strategies since 1981 and has served as a consultant to most of the leading hardware and software vendors in the industry including IBM, Apple, Xerox, Compaq, Dell, AT&T, Microsoft, Polaroid, Lotus, Epson, Toshiba and numerous others.

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