A virtual reality (VR) 鈥渁nswering machine鈥� can record changes in a person鈥檚 immediate environment while they are immersed in virtual worlds and play them back later.
In workplaces of the future, people may have to focus on tasks in virtual environments, making them unavailable for real-time communication with colleagues.
鈥淭he challenge is: Can we create a reality where we can still talk naturally even though the other person might, at that very moment, not be available?鈥� says at ETH Z眉rich in Switzerland.
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He and , also at ETH Z眉rich, developed a system called AsyncReality, which records events in the real world and replays them virtually at a later point.
It uses four depth-perceiving cameras that can tell how far away an object is and reconstruct the room in 3D. While the worker is in 鈥渇ocus mode鈥�, the system records changes in the environment and detects events that are causally related to each other, so they can be played back in a sequence later.
Fender and Holz presented the work at the in New Orleans, Louisiana, on 2 May.
In one scenario, a colleague enters an office worker鈥檚 room while he is working in a VR environment, so she leaves an object on his table and records a message. When the worker finishes his virtual task, he can see and pick up the object in virtual space to see how it got there and the message left for him.
Fender says this is a basic example, but the system can assist with more complex scenarios. 鈥淭he whole [office] arrangement in the future might be completely different because it鈥檚 intertwined with the virtual world which we interact with at the same time.鈥� It could also be useful when someone isn鈥檛 in the office at all, but working remotely, he says.
鈥淭he overall system is really interesting because it鈥檚 a logical extension of record-and-replay-it answering systems,鈥� says at University College London.
Apart from replaying missed visits from colleagues, AsyncReality could recreate other events, such as a group whiteboard session, says Steed. 鈥淵ou can see not only what鈥檚 there when you come back in, but perhaps how it got constructed 鈥� it may support hybrid working.鈥�
It could also be useful for people working on complex, choreographed procedures, such as in medicine or manufacturing, so they can replay what happens when they have to step out of the room, says Steed. But the need to constantly record work environments might lead to privacy concerns, he adds.
