Alfredo Ramirez is CEO of Vyopta. His expertise includes optimization of collaborative team work and employee/customer engagement.
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The emphasis on virtual reality (VR) technology that emerged with Facebook's transformation to Meta in late 2021 may have seemed like the first big "moment" for VR, but it was actually the loudest step taken in a march that started years ago.
For a decade now, major tech companies have been investing in and betting on VR to rule one day for workplace collaboration. Back in 2011, I remember seeing demonstrations of Cisco's Hologram technology for collaboration; and today, it is marketed as Webex Hologram for collaboration. Microsoft has also made progress into VR and mixed reality (MR) with its HoloLens and VR headsets, which have enabled businesses to perform tasks, such as onboarding and training people, designing systems and structures, supporting frontline or field services personnel, monitoring and tracking systems, more effectively and efficiently.
Why VR For Collaboration
Today, video conferencing technology does a good job of supporting remote work with face-to-face interactions. However, it is still not as effective as meeting in person to collaborate. VR technology has the potential to simulate and replace in-person interactions and collaborative work.
With VR, I have been able to use a headset to join virtual mountain climbing in the Alps and Himalayas in a more immersive experience than watching it on TV. I have also attended a social event with areas to explore and where I had the opportunity to engage with other people. I found both events interesting, enjoyable and surprisingly easy to adopt.
In its infancy, it is clear that VR will grow to support more than just entertainment and social applications, and you can certainly see that this technology is providing a good foundation to facilitate better participation and interaction with others.
The Metaverse
Does VR require a metaverse? Not really. Applications supporting VR user devices have been around for some time and are supported by the internet as it exists today. However, the metaverse is poised to become the next generation of the internet, a more powerful and purpose-built infrastructure for connecting virtual 3-D worlds while supporting a myriad of user experiences for consumer and business applications.
Meta's metaverse platform, Horizon Worlds, is under development but available for use today. Meta has applied great focus on VR experiences, 3-D mapping and hardware. In doing so, it offers a major step forward, providing users with near-life experiences like watching an NBA game in the front row. With a Meta Quest VR headset (i.e., Oculus Quest VR headset), you can watch any game with one or more friends without leaving home. With your virtual avatar, you can buy virtual merchandise and engage with friends and other fans. You can also schedule and track other upcoming events.
When Meta launched Horizon as a part of the metaverse, they made it to support interconnected virtual spaces where people can join one virtual space and, when desired, move to other virtual spaces seamlessly.
Imagine that you are in your personal or work virtual space, and someone — located anywhere around the world — contacts you to join them to solve a problem or to review a new idea. You could simply step out of your current virtual space and step into the new space to meet that person in an immersive environment that supports collaborative work interactions.
Mass Adoption
Mass use of VR and the metaverse for collaboration is still in the future, but companies are pushing the use of these solutions now. For example, prior to the beta announcement, Meta had already been using Horizon Workrooms VR technology for at least six months prior for internal collaboration to drive greater use and innovation of the physical user devices and metaverse platform.
Because a VR headset is basically a high-powered computer and communication device on your head, it has the potential to significantly reduce the need for a laptop and mobile phone. However, for the tech to reach mass adoption, the VR devices will need to deliver exceptional user experiences — fewer application issues/glitches, better and smaller form factors and high-quality visualization and audio.
An early use case for this was the Google Glass augmented reality headset, which provides a gateway into the metaverse. A recently announced partnership between Google and Verizon sets out to offer a hands-free solution for field workers to connect and collaborate with virtual subject matter experts and managers to maximize employee productivity and safety and uptime of high-value assets in the field such as expensive machinery, power stations and much more.
Business applications are the frontier that will attract investment at substantial levels in the VR world, but we have yet to see a wide enough global user base to create suitable traction. One potential roadblock is that the current meeting environments are not creating the second nature impulse to strap on a headset and completely change your state of perception.
Orlando Bravo, billionaire technology investor and founder and managing partner of Thoma Bravo, stated last year that the metaverse has a "big time" investment case. There was over $10 billion in venture funding made into VR in 2021 alone. That number looks to grow this year as many technology players like Meta and Microsoft make moves to build out the metaverse.
If we are to get to the level predicted by Ericsson that forecasts widespread use by 2030 of virtual environments that engage all five senses simultaneously, VR tech leaders have to make the current platforms and experience as pleasing and natural as possible.
When ease of use and a compelling experience attract newcomers to join and adopt VR and the metaverse, we will begin to realize the full potential of this exciting new technology.
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