Virtual reality: new avatars for remote meetings

Very soon, "conf call" or video conferencing meetings as they exist today, whether via Microsoft Skype, Google Hangouts or Zoom, will no doubt seem very dull. With the advent of virtual reality and mixed reality technologies, remote conferences are set to become a reality. be more realistic and, at the same time, make it easier for participants to get involved.

If the teleportation mode imagined in Star Trek is not about to see the light of day, the holograms projected by the robot R2D2 in Star Wars are already a reality. This holographic process was used, for example, to bring deceased artists back to life or to "duplicate" the candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon during the last presidential campaign.

BNP Paribas Real Estate seized on the concept a year and a half ago with the launch of the 'Dare' (Digital Augmented Real Estate) project. Relying on technology from the Franco-Belgian start-up Mimesys, the banking group's property subsidiary intends to reinvent the codes of remote meetings. Immersed in a immersive universeIn this way, participants can meet as holograms around the same table, even though they may be physically thousands of kilometres apart.

This 'volumetric video' is produced by a set of cameras combined with a particularly powerful processor. The user, for his part, must be equipped with a pair of mixed reality allowing fictional elements to be superimposed on reality. Mixed, since the holograms are in his field of vision, but embedded in his physical environment.

"We feel that current collaborative solutions are limitedsays Rémi Rousseau, co-founder of Mimesys. All the subtleties of human emotion and body language cannot be expressed solely via emoticons. As for traditional videoconferencing solutions, they don't offer this realistic feeling of total immersion, let alone the ability to manipulate virtual objects."According to the CEO of Mymesys, "holographic communication"in the future".an essential turning point for reducing the number of business trips, which are costly and harmful to the environment, while considerably improving business productivity."

Prophetic vision

But we'll have to wait a little longer for this prophecy to come true. Last May, Mimesys was acquired by Magic Leap, the American manufacturer of augmented reality glasses. Until Magic Leap integrated the start-up's technology, the hologram project was put on hold. In the meantime, BNP Paribas Real Estate has turned to another start-up, this time from New York, Spatial, which creates not holograms, but "augmented reality" glasses. highly realistic 3D avatars using participants' digitised faces. Participants can share various types of document (post-it notes, calendars, images, web pages, 3D models) by displaying them on a shared virtual wall.

BNP Paribas Real Estate has coupled this solution with Magic Leap's glasses. "As an integrator, we keep pace with the latest technologies"says Kevin Cardona, Director of Innovation. In his view, the speed of the Internet connection is not a limiting factor: "The Internet is a very powerful tool.Augmented reality requires less bandwidth than virtual reality. In a mobile situation, simply sharing a 4G connection is enough."Internally, BNP Paribas Real Estate is already using Dare to present real estate investment opportunities to major international clients, particularly in Asia and the Middle East. "For a first approach, they have no need to travel. With this type of investor, the experience must be perfect"says Kevin Cardona.

After this running-in phase, BNP Paribas Real Estate should be able to offer the solution to the market. The target group: industrial companies that need to discuss a model and, more broadly, any international company with a distributed workforce. at several sites around the world. "Augmented videoconferencing makes it easier to pick up on signs of body language"says Kevin Cardona. These are invaluable clues when recruiting or in commercial negotiations.." In his view, Dare responds to both the challenges of business nomadism and the climate emergency. "We are going to integrate into the solution the impact on a company's carbon footprint of the business trips eliminated, taking into account the environmental cost of the technologies used."says the head of innovation at the banking group's property subsidiary.

In his view, this type of solution can also be a incentive factor to attract the young workers of generations Y and Z. "Their perception of business travel is not the same as that of their eldershe notes. Business travel used to have a status dimension. Today, young people are no longer attracted to it because of their environmental awareness, but also because of their quest for a balance between professional and personal life."

For its part, virtual reality, while less spectacular than mixed reality, is nonetheless a very popular medium. more mature which has been around for fifteen years. It is also more affordable. The steady decline in the price of virtual reality headsets, such as those from HTC Vive or Oculus Rift, priced at between €450 and €600, means that the technology is now within the reach of all businesses. By way of comparison, Microsoft, Magic Leap's competitor, has just launched its mixed reality glasses, HoloLens 2, at a price of 3,500 dollars.

Real return on investment

For Sébastien Kuntz, CEO and founder of MiddleVR, "The most convincing use case for virtual reality, with a proven return on investment, is that of 3D design."Instead of being glued to their screens, engineers, architects or designers can view a 1:1 scale 3D modelAll they need is an autonomous headset connected to the Internet to work together on a project. All they need is a stand-alone headset connected to the internet to work together on a project.

MiddleVR also offers a virtual meeting room solution. This time the participants are represented by in the form of avatars generic whose hands and lips move, whose eyes blink. All signs of attention or disengagement. "However, it is difficult to transcribe all the non-verbal behaviour cues, such as a raised eyebrow on a virtual agent."says Sébastien Kuntz. However, the solution would require less bandwidth than a Skype video conference, which broadcasts the image 30 times a second. Here, once the avatar is loaded, only the head is "refreshed".