Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise to Enhance Hybrid Working with XR-Based Sharespace

The SHARESPACE research and innovation programme aims to empower people working remotely to interact in a shared space

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Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise to Enhance Hybrid Working with XR-Based Sharespace
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Published: May 17, 2023

Kieran Devlin

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise is participating in the SHARESPACE consortium to create XR-based Social Hybrid Spaces (SHS) to enhance hybrid and remote working.

Alcatel-Lucent and 14 other European partners comprise the SHARESPACE consortium, a €6 million initiative funded by the European Commission through the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme. The programme encompasses academics, industry and clinical experts in various disciplines, including AI, XR, mathematics, health psychology and cyberpsychology, cognitive neuroscience and movement science.

SHARESPACE aims to expand interaction in a virtual world using XR technology to enhance communication methods specific to participants’ characteristics. Alcatel-Lucent namechecks future deployment possibilities in various sectors, including health, learning, entertainment, sport, and the workplace.

Sylvain Rivier, SHARESPACE coordinator for Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, said:

We are delighted to take part in this amazing project that will put Extended Reality at European users’ fingertips. With SHARESPACE, we have developed open human-centric virtual worlds with new real-time remote interactions and capabilities into Rainbow’s collaborative space. The capability to integrate human-driven or full-virtual avatars will improve the performance of human-avatar and human-robot motor coordination in complex scenarios.”

SHARESPACE intends to build SHSes shared by humans (wearing XR glasses and mocap technology) and their virtual avatars. Participants and avatars engage in collaborative tasks that model body movements and create user interactions.

SHSes capture social sensorimotor primitives (actions involving both sensory and motor functions or pathways) through mobile-connected sensors. The environment is then reconstructed using XR tech, where virtual avatars can engage in joint action, distance-based learning and socialising.

SHS Holds Diverse Practical Applications

Alcatel-Lucent’s Rainbow CPaaS platform is tailored for the SHARESPACE project and enables participants to connect in real-time with any other person, device or application. Alcatel-Lucent describes the collaboration in its announcement as allowing “the onboarding of avatars as a new type of endpoint, enriching the remote collaborative experience”.

Leading researchers and deep-tech companies with unique health, sport, and art expertise will develop three real-life scenarios during the initiative. SHARESPACE will subsequently provide logistical and technical preparation for these practical use cases with appropriate institutions.

One scenario involves Barcelona’s Hospital Vall d’Hebron pain unit providing remote assistance to people suffering from chronic back pain. Public demonstrations will aim to engage users and communities using VR and AR and will be presented during the World Pain Conference in 2024 and 2025.

Another practical example is the “peloton cycling challenge”. The ambition is to create new perspectives in sports training and sports entertainment. Deploying personal, autonomous, and semi-autonomous virtual avatars for optimised perceptual motor skills, cyclists can learn how to ride in a virtual peloton. This case will be demonstrated at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris and the 2025 Tour de France.

Lastly, the “shared creativity improvisation” use case entails the “artistic co-creation of an aesthetic environment intuitively produced from dancers’ movements using AI avatars”, according to Alcatel-Lucent. This will be shown at the Ars Electronica Festival in 2024 and 2025.

Extended Reality and the Future of Hybrid Work

The SHARESPACE project is among many initiatives exploring the possibilities of XR’s impact on hybrid and remote working.

The technology’s potential applications are extraordinary, enabling remote workers to collaborate more effectively. Participants can join immersive meetings, interact with lifelike avatars, and share and manipulate 3D models and data via virtual meeting spaces. XR in the workplace will also introduce virtual workspaces that blend physical and digital elements, allowing remote workers to create customisable virtual environments specific to their preferences and work requirements.

Another possible solution is XR’s capacity to revolutionise training and skill development by providing immersive and interactive experiences for employees. They can participate in virtual simulations to practice real-life scenarios without risk. XR can address work-life balance concerns by creating virtual environments that cultivate relaxation and well-being.

Although the true potential of the technology and its applications in work contexts is yet to be fully explored, vendors have already launched collaborative XR solutions designed to empower productivity and fulfilment in hybrid working.

Last year, for example, Meta revealed it was partnering with Microsoft and Zoom to bring their communication platforms to its VR workspaces. The headset was used via Meta Horizon Workrooms, with Zoom and Teams integration, to enable businesses to connect and collaborate in a VR space.

Satya Nadella, Microsoft Chairman and CEO, commented, “We are bringing Microsoft Teams immersive meeting experience to Meta Quest to give people new ways to connect. You can connect, share, collaborate as though you were together in person, and in the future, you’ll be able to use other avatars, including meta avatars, in immersive experiences and Teams Meetings too.”

Last December, Microsoft also announced that Teams was accessible through the HoloLens 2 after a wave of significant updates to the virtual reality headset.

Alysa Taylor, Microsoft Corporate Vice President for Azure and Industry, said that Microsoft was “truly delivering Windows in mixed reality”, emphasising Microsoft’s broader ambition to explore XR integrations across its portfolio as hybrid working establishes itself as the new normal.

Customer ExperienceDigital TransformationExtended RealityFuture of WorkHybrid WorkUser Experience

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