Remote collaboration with telepresence and Virtual Reality (VR)
Remote collaboration has been a significant part of many corporations and educational institutes, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. Many technologies have been looked into to effectively collaborate while working remotely. One such method was to make use of telepresence systems.
Telepresence is a technology that makes people feel like they are interacting in a remote or virtual location. This interaction goes beyond video conferences and remote communication, and aims to create more immersive and realistic experiences of being in a remote or virtual environment. Telepresence systems use high-definition video displays,
Telepresence with Virtual Reality
Using Virtual Reality (VR) technology in telepresence systems makes the existing systems more appealing, as it enables us to create highly immersive, interactive experiences and enables remote collaboration in these systems. The table below shows the various benefits of remote collaboration using VR and telepresence:
Aspect | Benefits |
Immersive environments | Using 3D models, we can create a shared virtual space that individuals can access using their VR headsets. These environments include examples of classrooms holding virtual classes or meeting rooms in the virtual space. |
Real-time interaction | Users can use gestures, body movements, and voice commands to communicate with each other and manipulate objects in the virtual environment. |
Enhanced communication | VR technologies can incorporate non-verbal cues such as eye movement and body language to make interactions more natural and engaging. |
Collaborative activities | Users can manipulate 3D models, share documents, and draw in the virtual space using a physical whiteboard. This enables brainstorming, design reviews, training simulations, data visualization, and similar activities. |
Global accessibility | VR technology helps ignore geographical barriers and enables people worldwide to work collaboratively, a particularly valuable feature for multinational corporations and research groups. |
Carbon footprint | Remote collaboration using VR technologies decreases traveling, leading to a smaller environmental carbon footprint. |
Applications of telepresence with Virtual Reality
The worth of a technological system is rated by its impact on the industry. Let’s explore the various fields in which telepresence systems with VR are being used.
We will now look at how these systems are being used in the fields shown above:
Education: It is used to create virtual classrooms where the students can take classes remotely at any time while still feeling as if they are physically in the school.
Business: It is used by companies to hold virtual conferences, meetings, and presentations, where collaborators from all over the world can participate virtually.
Research: It is used for conferences in which complex scientific data like molecular structure can be visualized and analyzed using virtual 3D models.
Medicine: It is used in remote medical consultation, medical education, and training of new surgeons.
Training simulations: It is used to create training simulations for surgeons, astronauts, firefighters, and various other professions where it is challenging to give training in real-life scenarios.
Entertainment: It is used in virtual chat rooms where users can collaborate and interact in a virtual space. A significant example of this is the Metaverse itself.
Constraints of telepresence with Virtual Reality
While telepresence systems with VR technology have several benefits and use cases, they have some major constraints:
Expensive equipment: To effectively use these systems, we need a headset for each user, which can be very costly.
Comfort and ergonomics: Prolonged use of VR headsets is generally not recommended as they can cause discomfort, neck pain, and motion sickness.
Connectivity and latency: Telepresence systems with VR require a seamless and stable internet connection, which is hard to get in many parts of the world.
Due to these reasons, telepresence systems with VR are not commonly used.
Future progress
We have seen the capabilities of telepresence systems when used with VR, and we have also looked at the constraints that make these systems difficult to access. The way technology is progressing and with the addition of Mixed Reality (MR) and Extended Reality (XR), these technologies will become more common. Furthermore, the constraints we discussed are gradually being dealt with worldwide, and new approaches are being taken to tackle this problem. A few notable examples of upcoming telepresence systems are Apple’s Vision Pro and the Meta Quest 3.
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