The architectural firm Gensler is already creating software to help it design buildings around the idea that workers — wearing virtual, augmented or mixed reality headsets, glasses or even contact lenses.
Soon, your work space might exist all in your head.
That’s because computer-enabled devices will be able to project virtual, yet fully functional, representations of present-day physical office tools — a monitor, keyboard, mouse, phone, stapler, calculator, pens, paper and file cabinets — within your field of view.
“You could have 100 screens, you could have a hologram, you could have a whiteboard, you could be talking to someone else,” Michael Abrash, chief scientist for Facebook’s virtual reality subsidiary Oculus, said during a conference last week. “Other people could teleport in, you could teleport in to them, they could look over your shoulder. You could work together.”
Abrash is not alone in his vision. The architectural firm Gensler is already creating software to help it design buildings around the idea that workers — wearing virtual-, augmented- or mixed-reality headsets, glasses or even contact lenses — might only require an empty desk, which also could become digital eventually.
“It allows us to take your workplace everywhere,” said Alan Robles, the firm’s creative media leader. “It will fundamentally change the way we develop workplaces.”
Robles believes this way of working might arrive in as soon as three years, and no later than eight, because of rapid developments in augmented reality coming from companies like Microsoft, Google, Oculus and Meta.
Ryan Pamplin, a vice president of San Mateo’s Meta, is already using his startup’s prototype augmented-reality headset every day to project his own office work space. The headgear somewhat resembles a high-tech visor, with a see-through glass screen hanging down over the eyes. It allows users to see projections of their computer screen or whatever they are working on — with the computer seemingly in front of them, in three dimensions. Sensors and cameras pick up head and hand movements, allowing users to manipulate the digital images.