On Fridays, Nick Loizides shows up for a meeting. He and 30 or so people gather to report bugs on the software theyre beta-testing, get developer updates, and check each others work. Most of them have never met in person and are located around the world. But in these meetings, they talk face-to-face, make eye contact, and watch each others lips move in real time. <\/p>\n
As a 3D artist, Loizides is one of the early-invite users for Sansar, a virtual reality world by Linden Lab, the makers of massive-multiplayer social game Second Life. They hold these meetings in virtual reality, where they can travel to the worlds of the testers creationsbeaches, outer space, elaborate rooms. Its as close to teleportation as one can get. <\/p>\n
Sixty-three million VR headsets shipped in 2016 (compared to 1.5 billion smartphones), with a lot of that interest around porn and gaming. Companies investing in the technology, like Linden Lab, not surprisingly, swear its coming to your work meetings sooner than later. <\/p>\n
Anyone whos ever been in a painfully slow or disjointed Skype call, yelling into the ether, Unmute your mic! knows that the technologyand the user experienceis sorely in need of an update. But will VR solve those frustrations, or just move them to a new, pricier, face-sweatier format? <\/p>\n
It gets as close as we can right now to really replicating a face-to-face type of meeting, says Eric Boyd, a professor of marketing at James Madison University. Boyd is guest-editing an upcoming issue of the Journal of Business Research that will focus on virtual reality. You and I, were having this telephone conversation, but the only information were really getting is what each of us is saying. Were missing the body language. <\/p>\n
Video calls add a layer of intimacy with facial expressions, but reading someones mood from the neck up on a computer screen isnt always enough. Are they sitting with arms and legs crossed, or are they leaning in, open and receptive? It takes less mental effort when you dont have to interpret and infer information, Boyd said. <\/p>\n
Voice and eye-tracking technology give the sense of eye contact and facial expressions. <\/p>\n
In addition to adding interactivity and informationVR could especially benefit architects walking through virtual floor-plan renderings with clientsit adds an interpersonal connection that video or phone cant: The freedom of living behind an avatar. <\/p>\n
In the virtual world you learn about someone from the inside out because you dont see the person, you see their avatar, whether its a likeness of that person or whatever they want it to be, Loizides said. But theyre much more open to being open. Youre so open because youre protected and safe behind the computer. Youre not actually with that person with your guard up. You can really be free to express anything. <\/p>\n
Believers see VR as inevitably world-altering as the smartphone. The first response from many corporations and VR companies I asked about the long-coming VR revolutions first words to me were, Its happening. Its what Bjorn Laurin, VP of product at Linden Lab told me: He predicts virtual-meeting ubiquity for the general publicfor it to become as commonplace as owning an iPhonewithin five to 10 years. <\/p>\n
We are still not at the point where people want to hang out in headsets for a long period of time, says Derek Belch, founder and CEO at STRIVR. STRIVR is in the VR game, but not for meetings. Theyre developing training content, for which theres proven benefit over just watching or reading onboarding material. A 30-minute meeting in VR? Not happening anytime soon, Belch said, citing the hardware and comfort of headsets as reasons. Headsets currently weigh about a pound, which sounds light until you have it strapped to your face for an hour. <\/p>\n
If the comfort level of the headsets improves to the point where people want to wear them for an entire meeting, then I dont think any of the other factors will be issues. <\/p>\n
Boyd also points to the many unknowns in long-duration VR immersion and comfort: Many people experience dizziness or motion sickness even in a tame virtual setting, and its still not clear what the effects of putting a screen an inch from your eyeballs for an hour at a time will do to youophthalmologists say it poses no threat to your eyes, but it can still cause eye fatigue and strain, in the same way staring at any screen might. <\/p>\n
The other factor that will determine how widespread the adoption of VR meetings will be is where the trends in remote work go. Some companies are moving away from remote work altogether, in an effort to keep the company culture alive. IBM, one of the pioneers for remote work, recently gave its scattered workforce an ultimatum: Come back to the office or quit. If people decide they still want employees in the office, its going to work against VR to some extent I think, said Boyd. Is this five years or 50 years down the road? A lot of it has to do with business practices and what businesses feel comfortable doing, and not necessarily what technology can do for them. <\/p>\n
Five years is optimistic, Boyd said. I think were probably looking more toward eight to 10 years before we really start to see a supply of technology that can support it and people are seeing the benefits and how it can be easily incorporated in their day-to-day life. <\/p>\n
Freelance tech, science and culture writer. Find Sam on the Internet: @samleecole. <\/p>\n
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Will Virtual Reality Solve Your Conference Call Nightmares? - Fast Company<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Fridays, Nick Loizides shows up for a meeting. He and 30 or so people gather to report bugs on the software theyre beta-testing, get developer updates, and check each others work. Most of them have never met in person and are located around the world. Continue reading