The future challenge for all companies will be to get all of their employees to work together to implement projects. Due to the length of time working remotely, we are used to holding meetings without everyone physically present. Microsoft has been offering collaboration solutions like Office 365 suite or remote meeting software like Teams for many years. The company just launched a new product based on augmented reality called not. Its peculiarity is to allow participants to participate in meetings in a completely immersive way without being present. It is no longer a matter of being behind your screen and a camera for interaction, but of actively participating in it. I had the opportunity to test this product in the company’s offices.
This technology is based on Microsoft’s HoloLens augmented reality headset. Three are integrated into the helmet. Infrared camera is used to detect the floor, ceiling and physical objects. Another detects the movement of hands and arms. Third, it records what is happening around you. Microphones pick up speech and speakers reproduce sounds to simulate their position for added immersion.
You just have to design it and join a meeting to be some kind of teleport there. The principle is to make other speakers appear as an animated avatar as well as the project you are discussing in the form of a 3D image. Everyone comes together in a digital collaborative space. You can navigate and understand each other’s explanations better from their point of view. This is not a virtual reality where you are transported to a completely digital place. Here you are still in a real environment in which 3D visuals are imposed. This allows you to quickly take your scores without feeling any nausea.
You can also manipulate virtual objects with your fingers, zoom in and rotate. You can comment, draw in space with your fingers. With a wave of the hand, a menu pops up and displays files or emails. Options are selected by clicking a default button. You are in an Office 365 environment.
If you do not have a virtual headset, participation in the meeting is possible with traditional means of communication such as a smartphone or computer and the Teams app. Your avatar will still exist in the digital space, but with no interaction except for speech.
Mesh is an open technology platform to be integrated by developers and can also be accessed by other VR headsets to set up this type of meeting, all you need is the Mesh app and HoloLens.
Didier Ongina, Regional Director of Microsoft BeLux, explains that this type of product is part of the company’s desire to offer innovative tools to enhance collaborative working between teams. This responds to the hybrid business that companies will experience in the future. Tomorrow, meetings with remote people will be held face to face. How then do you have the same level of interaction? Mesh technology provides a solution to this challenge.
Didier Ongina also emphasizes the most important place that artificial intelligence will occupy. You will help everyone in their daily work by providing useful information to achieve this. He points out that more and more anonymous data will make it possible to measure the pulse of the company. Do employees work outside normal business hours? Do they take breaks or move from one meeting to the next? Do they take time for personal work? What interactions and cooperation exist between them and the departments? Some of this data is already used today in Outlook in the weekly MyAnalytics report.
the helmet HoloLens It is sold for 3,849 euros including VAT.
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