It could be as simple
as negotiating an elaborate deal with a businessman — even when you are sitting
in an office on the other side of the world. Or it could be as complex as a
hospital’s chief cardiologist making final checks before surgery — for a patient
lying in an isolated village 500 miles away. Or it could be as personal as
making sure you see your children when they get home from school — even though
you are in a different time zone.
In the next few years, a technological leap in video
communication is about to change the way we interact, work and live our lives.
Software such as Skype – which boasted 299 million users in June
2013 — and Apple’s FaceTime have already transformed personal
relationships, meaning that families and friends can stay in touch from
anywhere in the world.
But now teleconferencing — and its modern appellation,
telepresence — is beginning to change our professional lives, too.
The last few years have already seen a sharp rise in “remote working” —
employees working from home. According to a 2012 Ipsos/Reuters poll,
around one in five people in the world frequently “telecommute” to work, and
nearly 10% work remotely from home every day.
Meanwhile, companies expanding around the globe face
pressure from shareholders and regulators to minimise staff travel between
offices for meetings, enabling more energy-efficient choices and reducing
expenses.
A proliferation of better-quality, cost-effective technology
addresses this need. The TP3200 video conferencing system for
example, was recently launched by communications technology provider Huawei
Enterprise. It is designed especially for group meetings and uses a specialised
image-processing device — a so-called co-optical centre camera — to provide the
world’s first panoramic telepresence system.
“HD (high-definition)-resolution cameras and reliable
broadband connectivity have vastly improved the teleconferencing experience,”
says Jack He Liang, video conferencing director at the firm.
“More people, and
more employers, are beginning to see the benefits of video communication.
“Not only can it reduce costs, improve efficiency and save
on human resources, but video conferencing also makes it easier to convey your
idea. When you can communicate with your eyes and face, both sides [of the
meeting] feel more confident.”
Teleconferencing no longer requires participants to submit
to a fixed system of technical standards. Instead, many systems now utilise
what is called BYOD.
“It’s short for ‘Bring Your Own Device,’” says He Liang.
“The system recognises that many workers already own tablets, smartphones and
laptops with cameras — and integrates them.”
The result is a step change in how we see, and carry out,
our jobs.
So it is little surprise that global businesses are expected
to spend $3.75bn (£2.3bn) on videoconferencing technology by 2016. Smart
2020, a study commissioned by the Global e-Sustainability Initiative, (a
programme launched in 2001 to promote sustainable development in the ICT
sector), found that US and UK businesses can save almost $19bn (£11.7bn) as a
result of deploying 10,000 telepresence units by 2020.
By cancelling the need for long- and short-haul executive
flights between offices, the same study suggested that teleconferencing
technology and other virtual tools could reduce global annual greenhouse gas
emissions by 15% by the year 2020.
But that is just the start. The next generation of video
telepresence systems aims to fit even more seamlessly into our lives — by
adding realistic 3D capabilities.
The technology, known as holographic telepresence, is more Star Trek than staff
meeting. Instead of a flat screen, a three-dimensional moving image of a user
is reproduced at each meeting location.
Currently the effect is not a true hologram. The technology
company Musion, based in the UK, adapts an illusion commonly used in theatres
and theme parks known as the Pepper's ghost effect. An HD projector illuminates
a thin, effectively invisible, sheet-like “foil” from a 45-degree angle,
creating a 3D image almost indistinguishable from an actual person. The Musion
TelePresence system can now transmit full-sized people and objects in real-time
“without any significant delay in communication”, the company says.
The system achieved a Guinness World Record in 2012 by
helping Indian politician Narendra Modi deliver a 55-minute campaign speech to
audiences in 53 different locations simultaneously. And in the entertainment
world, Musion was one of three companies credited for digitally resurrecting
rapper Tupac Shakur onstage at the 2012 Coachella festival.
But true holograms might not be far away. Leia Display
System is currently working on an alternative technology. The Polish company
has built a holographic room, measuring 3m (10ft) by 2.5m (8ft), which
uses laser projectors to beam 3D images onto a thin cloud of water vapour —
providing not only a giant 3D multi-touch screen, but also the ability to walk
through the images and see them from any point of view.
Holographic telepresence like this has obvious potential
beyond from the business world. Healthcare is already being revolutionised by
telemedicine, allowing patients to be treated remotely, whether in isolated
areas or on a distant battlefield.
Hologram technology could also see advances in areas like
education, enhanced movies, television programming, advertising, gaming, 3D
mapping, aerospace navigation and robot control.
Still other improvements could be imminent. The
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US is examining how physical
surfaces can be manipulated by gestures, with objects being resized, reshaped
or moved remotely by people thousands of miles away. This offers the potential
for virtual offices, where hundreds or even thousands of people could
collaborate on a product without ever touching it.
Researchers at the University of Tokyo are also working on
adding haptic feedback (vibrations, for example) to holographic projections by
using ultrasound waves. A user can touch and interact with a hologram and
receive tactile responses as if the holographic object were real.
In an IBM survey of 3,000 researchers, respondents named holographic
video calls as one of the five technologies they expect to see in place by
2015.
There are obstacles to using these technologies, of course.
Not least is the cost of holographic technology: Musion currently rents its
system for around $65,000 (£40,000). Live telepresence also needs a fast,
direct connection of 10-20 megabytes per second (Mbps), as the recordings are
of higher quality.
“But thanks to 4G and LTE networks — and 5G coming soon —
bandwidth is no longer a problem,” says Huawei Enterprise’s He Liang.
“[Telepresence] will mean that we don’t have to work in an
office,” he explains. “That we don’t have to travel miles to be treated by a
doctor. That we can interact with our families from a different country. It
will begin to change the world we live in.”
Huawei released the industry's first panoramic telepresence
system(TPS). This TPS adopts Huawei's patented co-optical center camera with
panoramic gapless imaging and image stitching technologies, giving users a
truly immersive experience.
Huawei's panoramic TPS provides open interfaces to
interconnect with the systems of other vendors, thereby protecting the
customer's investment.
Huawei's panoramic telepresence system is able to save up to
30% TCO for the customer because it requires 25% less bandwidth, 42% less
energy, and 26% less physical space.
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