{"id":72548,"date":"2021-08-30T10:24:02","date_gmt":"2021-08-30T10:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/?p=72548"},"modified":"2021-08-30T10:31:56","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T10:31:56","slug":"can-holograms-and-avatars-replace-zoom-video-calls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/can-holograms-and-avatars-replace-zoom-video-calls\/","title":{"rendered":"Can holograms and avatars replace Zoom video calls?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can holograms and avatars replace Zoom video calls?<\/span><\/h1>\n

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Source:<\/span>BBC.COM<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Video meetings are now a permanent part of our work lives. Are there new solutions that can take out some of the agony?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Few things strike fear in the hearts of millions of workers quite like the phrase, Let\u2019s hop on a quick Zoom call<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

After months of sitting in front of the camera, looking at colleagues in Brady Bunch-style boxes, workers are tired of video meetings \u2013 and tired\u00a0from\u00a0<\/em>them, too. Although virtual meetings are, for most office jobs, a necessary evil, they\u2019re also a\u00a0drain on our energy<\/a>\u00a0and sense of connection, and, in some instances, even\u00a0contribute to workplace inequality<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

For some, the impending return to office means screens will finally be replaced by long-forgotten conference tables. Most workers, however, will return to a new hybrid and remote ecosystem where screens continue linking employees across the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, is it back behind tiny cameras we go, forever?<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps not. On 19 August, Facebook announced its new technology,\u00a0Horizon Workrooms<\/a>, which uses virtual reality headsets to gather colleagues as avatars inside of a simulated meeting room. The company is betting that strapping on a VR headset could not only help us get out of dreaded Zoom calls, but re-create the alchemy of working together in person.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Facebook\u2019s approach is one of the boldest \u2013 if not simply the loudest \u2013 twists yet on the status-quo video call, rife with problems we haven\u2019t managed to crack. Could holding meetings in the \u201cmetaverse\u201d, or embracing other similar solutions, give us a break from what we hate most about Zoom calls? Or is it more likely that we wind up with a headache and a bout of ver<\/span>tigo instead?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Working in the \u2018metaverse\u2019<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Disruption\u2019 is an over-used tech buzzword, the world of virtual meetings really\u00a0needs\u00a0<\/em>disrupting. Video meetings are a physical drain, they can be a social minefield and on a grand scale, they don\u2019t work as well as in-person gatherings. This is due in part to how hard it is to virtually replicate the most crucial piece of in-person meetings, which is how we read others: video conferencing can\u00a0inhibit our minds\u2019 ability<\/a>\u00a0to process discrete movements and body language. Simply, we don\u2019t gesture, move or convey emotions as effectively on screen, nor do we analyse them as well, either.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t an easy problem to crack \u2013 at least not with the technology we\u2019re used to \u2013 which is where Facebook\u2019s VR slots in.<\/span><\/p>\n

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With Horizon Workrooms, users wear a virtual-reality headset and gather together in a meeting room to join colleagues’ avatars (Credit: Facebook)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Workrooms is part of Facebook Horizon, the company\u2019s VR metaverse, which has been used primarily for gameplay, until now. To get to their Workroom, users strap on a VR headset, set up an avatar and are greeted with a virtual desk. A home screen projects a daily calendar as well as the meeting rooms users can join \u2013 spaces with pastel walls, ample \u2018natural\u2019 light and floor-to-ceiling windows with a beautiful view of a digital horizon. Users can change conference tables to accommodate different kinds of meetings: there\u2019s a small table for one-on-ones, half-circle tables for presentations and even a university-style lecture hall with raked seating. Crucially, as meetings happen, avatars\u2019 gestures mirror the user\u2019s real-life moments, theoretically re-recreating the nuanced body language lost over video calls.<\/span><\/p>\n

Facebook isn\u2019t the only company attempting to disrupt virtual meetings as we know them. American technology futurist Cathy Hackl points to hologram-style tech, which she says has been around since \u201cat least the early 2000s\u201d. Canada-based ARHT Media launched a 3D display system that can place users into meetings virtually. US company Spatial, another tech start-up, facilitated holographic-style meetings via Facebook’s Oculus Quest headsets.<\/span><\/p>\n

And in March 2021, Microsoft launched an augmented- and virtual-reality workroom tool called\u00a0Microsoft Mesh<\/a>. Mesh is in early stages but includes both actual holograms and what the company calls \u201choloportation\u201d \u2013 a virtual rendering of your actual self in a digital space.<\/span><\/p>\n

See you in VR?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

These science fiction-esque alternatives are well and good, but can they actually bypass the inefficacy (and misery) of video meetings \u2013 and do so without creating a whole new set of challenges?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHaving experienced Horizon Workrooms, I would say it\u2019s a very interesting, useful tool,\u201d says Hackl, however, the objective of the metaverse isn\u2019t \u201cnecessarily about creating a virtual world that replaces our current world. It\u2019s about building on top of our world with digital content\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Wasson cautions against underestimating the efficacy of Zoom, and undervaluing how much of a breakthrough the technology really is<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
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This can be especially appealing for younger generations. \u201cThey tend to be very familiarised with gaming in some way, spending time in virtual worlds.\u201d As far as work is concerned, metaverse-centred solutions like Horizon Workrooms may offer a secondary, safe place for colleagues to meet and collaborate \u2013 all without having to worry about\u00a0Zoom etiquette<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0personal appearance<\/a>, but Hackl doesn\u2019t think the tools will have immediate universal appeal. One of her prior employers used Spatial to host sales calls. \u201cI would be in my office at home and see holograms of 10 of my colleagues. The regular consumer isn\u2019t doing that necessarily.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

First, the barriers to entry may simply be too high for companies, big and small. For Horizon Workrooms, specifically, headsets are expensive for individuals and companies alike. And still buggy \u2013 even Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had to temporarily leave a Horizon Workrooms demonstration when his avatar\u2019s\u00a0mouth stopped moving<\/a>. (Zuckerberg says users will one day be able to participate with VR headsets other than the company\u2019s Oculus brand, as well as their laptops or desktops.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps most importantly, getting multigenerational workforces on board with dramatic workplace transformation is a difficult, time-consuming process. Though video-chat technology has roots that\u00a0date back to 1964<\/a>. And as Christina Wasson, professor of anthropology at the University of North Texas points out, \u201cpeople since the early 1980s have been predicting that, within the next five years, video conferencing is going to become ginormous, and then it kept not happening\u201d. It didn\u2019t find a market until Zoom, she says \u2013 during the pandemic, when the technology was foisted upon workers out of necessity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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American company Spatial is a collaboration platform that enables uses to meet with “holographic” avatars (Credit: Spatial)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Still, Hackl believes Horizon Workrooms is a great first step toward future meeting disruption. \u201cEarly adopters are going go in there and use this tool, and eventually the mass market will follow,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I don\u2019t think it’s going to be something that\u2019s going to happen today\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Disrupting the wrong things?<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

As companies rush to re-invent the digital meeting space, Wasson cautions against underestimating the efficacy of Zoom, and undervaluing how much of a breakthrough the technology really is.<\/span><\/p>\n

First, much of how we\u00a0analyse faces and body language<\/a>\u00a0happens subconsciously. Although video meetings change how we interact with others, they still provide some amount of the information we process during in-person conversations. And Wasson, who studies linguistic anthropology, says people are actually \u201camazing at reading each other from second to second\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

She worries that switching a worker\u2019s presence to a digital representation, like an avatar, may mean people will lose more than they\u2019ll gain. \u201cZoom-type setups, where you can see the actual person, are a lot more effective than the use of avatars. There\u2019s not the level of information carried in an avatar than there is in an actual face and body,\u201d says Wasson. This can especially be true as the technology is still emerging, which can mean wonky gestures and facial expressions that aren\u2019t completely fluid.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a misdirected effort to get so obsessive about trying to replicate the face-to-face context when you\u2019re online,\u201d says Wasson. She thinks that the next stage in the evolution of online collaboration may not be a digital replication of real life at all. In fact, she thinks that some non-face-to-face tools are better at helping us work together, like Miro, an online whiteboard that lets users collaborate in real-time. Although Miro features video and audio messaging, its main purpose is to give people a shared platform on which to work together.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s value in trying to duplicate the physical space. Why not take the online medium for what it is and identify what its strengths are?\u201d says Wasson, who also consults with businesses on creating meeting environments. She believes that hologram technology may be a better alternative to VR, at least for reading the virtual room when talking to colleagues, since it may help us better understand body language and other non-verbal forms of communication.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ultimately, we won\u2019t know for quite some time whether these emerging technologies are a viable replacement for the video calls we now know intimately. And even when they do potentially catch on, futurists including Hackl believe we\u2019ll be using a combination of technologies, not just VR or holograms outright.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, there\u2019s something a little exciting in knowing we have potential to evolve one of the things we hate most about remote work. For now, we\u2019ll just have to get on Zoom to tell each other about it.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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