VROOM: Microsoft Research envisions a workplace filled with Telepresence Robots and AR headsets (video)

Microsoft Research have posted a video on a project called VROOM for Virtual Robot Overlay for Online Meetings.

Microsoft imagines users being able to visit locations via a telepresence robot and being represented remotely via an avatar which overlays the robot and which is visible to the other attendees via the use of HoloLens headsets.

Microsoft writes:

Telepresence robots allow remote users to freely explore a space they are not in, and provide a physical embodiment in that space. However, they lack a compelling representation of the remote user in the local space. We present VROOM (Virtual Robot Overlay for Online Meetings), a two-way system for exploring how to improve the social experience of robotic telepresence. For the local user, an augmented-reality (AR) interface shows a life-size avatar of the remote user overlaid on a telepresence robot. For the remote user, a head-mounted virtual-reality (VR) interface presents an immersive 360° view of the local space with mobile autonomy. The VR system tracks the remote user’s head pose and hand movements, which are applied to the avatar. This allows the local user to see the remote’s head direction and hand gestures, and the remote user to identify with the robot as an identifiable embodiment of self.

See the video below:

Via Walkingcat