Using VR To Beat Zoom Fatigue!

Venturebeat – VR can be useful not just for scheduled meetings but also for helping ease feelings of isolation and giving some workers the office buzz they crave and thrive in (Reuters, 24 November 2020).

Reuters reports that once the preserve of gamers, virtual reality (VR) has been seized on by the financial sector as a way of enlivening home working for lonely traders or isolated executives and replicating real-world sales, networking, or training events.

This very interesting article makes the point that VR can be useful not just for scheduled meetings but also for helping ease feelings of isolation and giving some workers the office buzz they crave and thrive in.

For example, the Swiss bank UBS has experimented with issuing its London-based traders Microsoft HoloLens smart glasses, which it says allows staff to recreate the trading floor experience at home.

Combating Video Conferencing Burnout

Executives say they are combating so-called Zoom fatigue — exhaustion brought on by a daily barrage of video conferences, meetings, and messaging via tools such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams, which have replaced face-to-face interaction.

VR headsets allow users to see and interact with others in the same digital room, and movements like turning their head correspond with how the person’s avatar moves in the space.

Zoom Video Communications said it expects VR and AR to become a bigger part of online communication in the future.

This could include new enhancements to alter a person’s appearance to make it more work-appropriate, hiding gym clothes, for instance, and translating real-life details into the virtual space, such as the ability to shake hands.

The Reuters article appeared in Venturebeat (Reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft and Saikat Chatterjee, editing by Alexandra Hudson.). It can be found in full here

Making Technology Work For You

Like all things technology related, VR/AR options regarding interacting with your colleagues is quite exciting. As much as I love the concept of VR, it doesn’t like me. So, there does need to be quite an improvement with such technology for those of us who suffer from a motion imbalance.

Some of the best and most interesting moments I have had using interactive technology is at a conference where there is up to a thousand people in the room and you get to vote on an issue by a remote hand held device. But the real cool stuff is seeing the votes drop in instantaneously and even how the vote is broken down by demographic in the room. You do get to see in real time the generational differences and thinking on an issue.

Experimenting with VR technology as a work tool has been around for a shortish period of time. As the technology improves, so will the push for those working at home and in the traditional workplace or on the road to take it up. The future that we see in many sci-fi movies of late re VR/AR headsets, brain jacks and interactive panels is catching up quickly.

I know that with at least one of our children, if an employer advertised right now they were offering a VR work environment, he wouldn’t just be knocking their door down, he would be pulling out all the stops he can think of as to why they should choose him!

What are your thoughts?

Are you prepared for the VR revolution (finally)? I’m waiting for the MIB wrap around sunglasses version 😎