Earlier this month, Microsoft launched their “Build” conference with their eyes set firmly on the future. During a segment covered by Marketing Manager Raanah Amjadi, the brand explained how they were in the process of creating prototype devices to merge the digital and physical worlds of the meeting room.
They referred to the concept as the “Meeting room of the Future” – and it’s certainly futuristic, with all the features you’d expect from a sci-fi-inspired toolkit. The new technology is housed in a cone-shaped device, which comes with its own 360-degree camera and state-of-the-art microphone array. When set up in a meeting room environment, the device detects attendee presence in a meeting room, greets visitors, and more.
Achieving the AI-Powered Meeting Room
Thanks to artificial intelligence technology like audio and facial recognition, the meeting room tool can track everything that happens in your meetings. That means that it can transcribe your conferences, so you have notes on everything that was said.
What’s more, Microsoft suggested that the device might even be able to take cues from the things you say in the meeting to provide actionable alerts and nudges to relevant people. For instance, if you said “I’ll call you tomorrow” in the meeting, Microsoft’s virtual assistant Cortana could remind you to do just that.
Because it transcribes information in real-time the system can also provide translations for people in a meeting who don’t speak the same language.
Blending the Real and the Digital
Already, it’s easy to see what Microsoft meant when they claimed they would be bringing the virtual and physical worlds together. However, aside from the AI-enabled hardware, the company also announced two new apps for mixed reality to make the meeting room experience even more immersive. According to the company, their aim was to create richer experiences for their users, using context and insight.
One application, Microsoft Layout allows you to bring virtual 3D models into a room in real-world scale so you can see how they would look in a physical space. Then you can edit the image and share it with other people. The other app, Microsoft Remote Assist, allows today’s flexible workers to collaborate remotely with people on their Microsoft Teams list. With the app, you can engage in mixed-reality annotations, image sharing, and video calling, to keep your communications hands-free when you’re working on other projects.
When Will the Future Arrive?
For now, while the apps are a reality, the meeting room experience is still in “concept” mode. That means you can’t go out and buy your AI cone today. However, Microsoft’s demo was pretty impressive, which could mean that we see something similar on the horizon. Microsoft has already promised to bring new Surface Hub displays into the mix this year, and they could offer a perfect addition to the AI-ready conference experience that Microsoft showcased at “Build”.
