I spent a week working in VR. But mostly it was scary… – Cointelegraph Magazine

I just spent a whole week in virtual reality using the new Meta Quest 3. While the experience was still largely a nightmare, I came away with a new optimism for VR in the workplace.

As I took Ron's outstretched imaginary hand for a handshake, my real hand – in the real world – smacked stealthily against the side of my desk.

Ron started laughing, the avatar's animated facial expressions imitating his real face thanks to the device's eye and face tracking technology.

Ron, a project manager at Microsoft, told me it was something I would get used to. He has been working in Metaverse for over a year.

Days later, I met Heather, who had been working in virtual reality for two months. She likes to jump into the Metaverse to work when her kids are at school and the house is quiet.

Then there was Netflix recruiter Miguel, who has been using the “OG” virtual reality app Immersed to work for the past two years.

The big question is: Why do you want it?

After only two hours in, my eyes burn.

As surprising as it sounds, after working in the Metaverse for about a week myself, I'm not sure how anyone can do it for longer.

I spent most of my seven days with Immersed, a virtual collaboration app that can be found on the Metaquest store but can also be downloaded from other platforms.

Most days, I join about a dozen other VR users, depending on the time of day and which public workspace I choose. (The “Cafe” setting seems to be very popular.)

Originally, I was going to spend the week using Meta's homegrown Horizon Workrooms, but I quickly switched to Immersed after realizing that Horizon Workrooms don't support public workspaces and lack important quality-of-life features like mobility. And adjust the screen size and distance.

In either case, the setup wasn't too difficult. When you first strap on the Meta Quest 3 headset, the device scans your surroundings to understand where you are in your room (in my case the office) and where certain obstacles are, such as bookshelves, tables, and chairs. This can warn you if you're getting too close to a wall or obstacle when you're immersed in VR.

In order to interact with your computer in virtual reality, there is a companion app that must be installed on your PC, which allows the app to extract the necessary information from your computer and feed it to your headset via cable or WiFi. Most remote desktop applications work the same way.

In Immersed, your virtual screens can be rotated, resized, and moved wherever you want. You can also choose to work in augmented reality, which allows you to place a virtual screen in the middle of your real-life environment.

But it wasn't much help. At the end of each day I was suffering from splitting headaches and trying to rub the heavy pressure from my eyes. My neck is always stiff, a side effect of being weighed down by a large headset.

And why? Most days I struggled to achieve the same level of output compared to a normal day in front of the PC.

My experience is not unique. In the year In 2022, Dr. Jens Grubert, a researcher at the Coburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany, gathered 18 people to participate in a study on the effects of working in VR for a week.

Within the first few hours, two dropped out due to nausea, anxiety and migraines, while others who managed to finish the week reported increased levels of frustration and anxiety.

They also reported that their self-perceived productivity was significantly reduced compared to working in the real world. All experienced eye fatigue, although this seemed to decrease with time.

In April, research firm Forrester found that while there's a lot of hype around the possibilities of working in VR, not much is happening in reality… virtual or otherwise.

According to a Forrester survey, only 2% of respondents said they would prefer to use mixed-reality devices for work. According to JP Gownder, principal analyst at Forrester's Futures Working Group, the hardware is still too difficult to use in the long term.

Okay, some bits are amazing.

But despite all the frustration, eyestrain and headaches, there were a few moments when I was genuinely impressed with the experience.

Working in a virtual environment next to other like-minded people turned my normal remote, isolated work existence into a lonely one.

During my week in VR, I sat down and worked with a digital marketer, a software developer from the United States, and a vendor for a firm that provides e-commerce solutions. We talked about sports, what we each did for work. It felt like a real network.

“The biggest benefit is the ability to communicate effortlessly with people all over the world. I work from home like no other,” explains digital marketer Pat.

“In virtual reality, you can choose whether you want to chat with others, or you can mark yourself as ‘do not disturb' or have a private room.”

Besides Microsoft, Ron told me that he often prefers to work from VR and takes his headset everywhere, including his home, a client's office, or on occasion when he needs to report to the tech company's headquarters in Seattle, Washington.

And he pointed out that virtual reality is not limited by weight or size restrictions, and allows the headset to take five monitors wherever it goes.

Conducting meetings in virtual reality can also be a game changer.

There's something strangely natural about being able to shake hands with someone 10,000 miles away, even if they're not physically present. A zoom meeting is something that can never be replicated.

Other times, I simply appreciate how attentive my virtual reality co-workers are, which spurs me on.

He also had the freedom to change my “office” location – from a space station orbiting the Earth to a cozy chalet on a snow-capped mountain, with a fireplace crackling quietly in the corner.

Maybe Zuckerberg was right?

Metaverse skeptics raised their eyebrows when Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke about his advanced vision for Metaverse at the 2021 Communications event.

“We want to make people feel like we're with them, no matter how far away we are,” Zuckerberg said. Many laughed at the tech giant's loss of tens of billions in research and development. Reality Lab Room – It seems only to produce legless, hollow-eyed monsters through the worlds of the Meta Horizon.

But that laughter is quiet. In September, Zuckerberg showed that the technology is much better than we thought.

In a face-to-face conversation with computer scientist and podcaster Lex Friedman, Zuckerberg revealed the latest version of Codec Avatars, one of Meta's longest-running research projects aimed at generating photo-realistic metaverse avatars.

The technology was appreciated by the audience, including Friedman.

“I'm already forgetting that you're not real.” However, the technology requires special equipment and is at least three years away from being accessible to everyday consumers. Zuckerberg said he hopes the scanning process can eventually be done on smartphones.

The latest VR version of the Meta uses a standalone, standalone headset, displays a stereoscopic image through LCD screens with “pancake” lenses, making it lighter and thinner and offering a wider field of view than its predecessors. Motion and hand tracking are combined with accelerometers, gyroscopes and four external cameras, while two other cameras are used to display a colored “pass” – useful when engaging in mixed reality.

Meanwhile, there is a lot of excitement around Apple's Vision Pro, which is set to launch in the first quarter of 2024. It comes with eye tracking, 4K resolution, and Apple Eye View, which could potentially hurt your future career, and it comes with an eye-watering $3,499 price tag.

Apple says the “Position Computing” tool allows users to “set up the perfect workspace.”

So, is VR work ready for prime time?

As I reflect on my week in virtual reality, I'm actually enjoying a coffee in Sydney's western suburbs, certainly not a coffee shop.

Occasionally, I miss my VR workmates and the tranquility of a cozy virtual chalet.

But until tech gets less, less, and less crowded, I'll probably stick to Slack huddles and my trusty PC on my wooden desk.

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Felix Ng

Felix Ng first started writing about the blockchain industry through the lens of a gambling industry journalist and editor in 2015. Since then, he has moved on to cover the blockchain space full-time. He is very interested in blockchain technology, an innovation aimed at solving real-world challenges.