Virtual reality, a tool that facilitates telecommuting:

COVID-19, virtual reality and telecommuting:

We have no real visibility on how the health crisis we are going through will end. The coronavirus epidemic forces us to review our working methods and tools. As underlined in the article of the journal du net"The Covid-19 has generated a real shaking within the companies. This leads us to think about a new vision of the world of work, its interactions, its stakes and its limits. This upheaval in work habits, has forced companies to react immediately and deploy a new work organization.Isn't telecommuting becoming a norm?. In an interview with BFMTV, Matthieu Soullé (DGA BNP US) explains the situation in the USA. " Some companies want to generalize telecommuting, observing that this way of working does not particularly impact the productivity of employees", he goes further by explaining that " American high-tech companies are the first to consider this cultural revolution. Twitter, Coinbase... but also Facebook, which has announced that half of its employees could work from home, permanently, within 5 to 10 years." Facebook is the forerunner in the field wanting to become according to the Le Monde article, "the most advanced company on telecommuting." So by what means do these companies plan to do this? Virtual reality could be a tool that would facilitate telework?

What are the new tools in telecommuting?

Thedigital factory explains that "the confinement and social distancing measures are exploding the demand for remote collaboration tools". A race for collaborative tools has begun, benefiting in the process, some players like ZOOM. Its share price went from 75 USD to 570 USD in the first 9 months of the year. But what do we really need to work well? The Journal du net insists on the importance of collaborative tools. "In order for employees to work in the best conditions, the environment is essential. An adequate work space, if possible separate from the family space, is recommended. The setting up of telephone or video conference meetings with specific and animated themes. Virtual coffee breaks... play a determining role in the link between employees." Coming back to Facebook, where 95% of its staff is currently teleworking, the concept goes even further. In the article "Facebook wants to make telecommuting more immersive thanks to virtual reality" ( 01net article of September 18). The article of the digital-factory explains us more clearly the strategy of the social network which wants to"authorize" new applications of productivity and collaborative work on the official store of the Oculus Quest. They will be available later this year.

Spatial and Immersed at Facebook:

Among these tools, 2 are already partly known: Spatial and Immersed. Spatial allows to transform any environment into an immersive workspace, in which several users can collaborate even when they are at a distance. The Immersed application, on the other hand, "allows users to connect to a computer, and then display up to five virtual screens, which can be shared with other users. Employees can of course teleport to the same space to exchange information. These tools respond to the problem of remote work, while immersing the employee in an immersive world that takes him out of his personal environment. Virtual reality could well become more present in our lives than we imagined.

Virtual reality and telework: a tool that facilitates :

Can VR at work be a solution to the current context? In view of what we have previously mentioned, Virtual Reality is moving from a niche technology, designed for a few gamers, to a pragmatic solution to facilitate telecommuting. All the web giants, Facebook in the lead, are exploring the uses of VR right now. It is becoming a real work tool. The virtual-reality.com website quoted a tweet from John Carmack, the CTO of Oculus, who said that "Facebook is serious about making Oculus Browser a viable work platform". As a reminder, Oculus Browser is the virtual reality web browser developed by Facebook for its VR headsets. As the article continues to point out, "In the age of COVID-19 and widespread telecommuting, such a proposal is relevant".Can you imagine working in a spacious office that is different from your personal and family environment? John Carmack would take the idea even further "by eventually proposing avatars of your colleagues around you". A real universe in which we can evolve, develop our creativity and our productivity. The notion of well-being at work and social experience is in full swing in the virtual world of tomorrow. Facebook, but also Apple with LIDAR, are putting forward these new technologies with a futuristic approach of what is waiting for us in our professional life of tomorrow. We can therefore say that virtual reality has found a new use through telework. ____________________________________________________________________________________

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