By Josué Karim. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P]
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the way many people work has changed radically: millions of workers around the world have had to move their offices to their homes, with all the challenges that this implies, including access to the Internet.
Remote work still presents many challenges, one of which is isolation, plus meetings and brainstorming just aren't the same remotely.
This is how Facebook's virtual reality division, Oculuslaunched on Thursday the test version of "Horizon Workrooms", a small, but very metaverse where people can collaborate in new ways, and which will be available for free to users of their "Quest 2" viewers.
"Workrooms is designed to collaborate, communicate and connect remotely, whether it's to meet to brainstorm, write an idea on the whiteboard, work on a document or listen to team updates, hang out, socialize or just have conversations that flow more naturally."
Similarly, this space brings together new technologies such as mixed reality desktop and keyboard tracking, hand tracking, remote desktop streaming, video conferencing integration, spatial audio and new avatars to create a different experience that drives productivity.
Horizon Workrooms, a space to foster creativity
As a mixed reality experience, the space allows users to bring their physical desk and keyboard into the Horizon Workrooms virtual room, so employees can feel like they have all their work tools at their fingertips.
Combined with the Oculus Remote Desktop companion application, they will have one-click access to their entire computer from virtual reality, to take notes during their meetings, bring their files into virtual reality, and even share their screen with colleagues if they wish.
With the new avatars launched earlier this year, a wide range of much more expressive and natural customization options are offered, which will help people communicate with their colleagues.
Conversations will also sound more realistic due to the special high-quality, low-latency audio, which allows you to hear people based on where they are sitting, just as they would sound in a real room, making conversations flow smoothly.
While on the infinite virtual whiteboard you can draw ideas in real time by writing on it with the help of a virtual pen, you can anchor images from your computer, save them as long as you need or export them as images.
And since not everyone has a virtual reality viewer, they can also join a room from their computer, via a video call. For now, Workrooms' capacity is 16 people in virtual reality and up to 50 people total on a call, including video participants.
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