With the shift to online education and remote work during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, online meeting platforms gained significance. Microsoft’s Teams application emerged as one of the prominent solutions, being widely adopted by educational institutions and companies. The application garnered a large user base, particularly due to the impact of the pandemic.
In recent months, Microsoft announced a new feature for Teams that would compete with Meta’s augmented reality office application. This new feature is designed to bring the metaverse universe into the Teams application, allowing users to participate in online meetings using three-dimensional avatars.
The aim of this feature is to address the issue of online meetings becoming monotonous and challenging to focus on after a certain point. Users will be represented by digital copies closely resembling them or avatars created according to their preferences, reflecting their actions accurately to other participants. The use of artificial intelligence technology ensures that all movements are precisely mirrored in the virtual character created as an animation.
Notably, VR glasses are not required to see these virtual characters, as they will be projected in two dimensions during the meeting. However, for users with VR glasses, a more realistic meeting environment can be created, allowing them to observe metaverse avatars in three dimensions.
Microsoft will integrate this metaverse feature into the Teams app using the Mesh app. This new addition is called “Mesh for Teams,” combining the mixed reality features of Mesh with the productivity tools of Teams. This integration enables people in different physical locations to engage in shared holographic experiences, participate in virtual meetings, send chats, collaborate on shared documents, and more.
METAVERSE IN MINECRAFT
Microsoft Mesh is a mixed reality platform that transforms the virtual meeting experience, providing a unique approach to online interactions. With Microsoft Mesh, participants can join meetings by transferring their 3D avatars or photorealistic images using 360 holoportation technology.
This platform incorporates proximity and spatial audio, enabling users to understand their spatial relationships in the virtual space. Additionally, Microsoft Mesh allows users to collaboratively visualize and annotate 3D content during meetings.
The integration of Microsoft Mesh into applications like Teams represents a shift toward creating immersive and engaging virtual environments for collaborative work. Beyond meetings, Microsoft plans to leverage this reality technology in gaming and consoles.
According to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, the company is actively working on integrating metaverse-like applications into games and the Xbox platform. He envisions games that transport players to alternate universes, especially when supported by wearable technologies such as VR headsets.
Nadella cites existing games like Halo, Minecraft, and Flight Simulator as examples of the metaverse concept and expresses the company’s intention to evolve them into fully 3D worlds. The goal is to create a seamless integration of these gaming experiences with metaverse-like functionalities, offering users a richer and more immersive interactive environment.
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