Software beyond the pandemic: VR Workers

COVID 19 is changing us. And I’m sure it is changing us permanently. I believe that we will never be able to think and act like pre-pandemic again. There will be a permanent change in our mindset which will hugely impact how we consume technology among every other thing. The taste of doing things remotely weather it is to do your groceries or just plain old video conferences will stay, people will get used to the convenience and continue to use them. I wrote recently about the online explorers about how other forms of consumption such as concerts, events, even travel is and will move towards online deliveries. Today I’m going to rant as to why VR and AR magic we’ve be hearing about so much isn’t where it is supposed to be. These technologies will see a major push because of the virus and we should see major innovation at last beyond the obvious first person shooters in VR and yet another demo AR app that displays information in context.

Virtual Meeting Places and the Virtual You

The obvious niche to fill up first is virtual meeting that are immersive. We could be meeting everyone who is missing (afraid to get out of the house because a crazy virus is ravaging the planet? Apocalypse can happen you know :) ) through AR where the person magically appears before us in the empty seat like Star trek. We could be visiting locations in the virtual space and meeting others with VR glasses (or even without them!). Making strides already in this space are apps like AltspaceVR that almost died in 2017 but thanks to M$ we still have them going strong. And with the coronavirus scare they’ve been seeing a surge in interest.

AltSpace is compatible with many VR platform including Vive, Oculus and Gear VR and it also works in 2D mode in Windows and with the Windows Mixed Reality headsets. The Android app has been discontinued and iOS was never supported, so M$ has to come out of it’s partisanship and make it deliver wider.

There is similar renewed interest in other meeting technologies. Among them MeetingVR is creating a lot of buzz because of the enterprise focus. It can be the new standard for meetings and collaboration for work for the post Pandemic world.

Engage is another corporate focused VR space platform that is moving fast from this push for effective online meetings. It currently supports most PC based VR devices and a selection of mobile standalone devices. PCs without VR equipment are also covered with the loss of immersion of course.

And the fact that life like avatars are just a few more iterations away means that VR meetings with almost real feel are just round the corner. Leading in this space is who else but the company who has all our pictures and data tagged and flagged - Facebook, making VR avatars look and move exactly like you

Interesting developments also moving fast because of the virus are bridging and integration technologies that would allow developers and user mix and match services to create better experiences and applications. A recent one making headlines is Spaces that bridges VR with Skype, zoom and Hangouts.

This is just the beginning. And it’s about time too. VR and AR has to pay up. And the virtual you is here to stay.