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From factory floors to operating rooms, the future of work is getting a tech upgrade, but it won’t be how Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg imagined, reports trade publication Human Resources Director.
Zuckerberg’s Metaverse was supposed to transform the way we work, melding VR and mixed reality to create a digital office environment where the boundaries between physical surroundings and digital tools disappear.
But four years after changing its name to Meta, the company began scaling back its VR ambitions to pivot toward artificial intelligence in January, according to media reports.
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While that may have killed Zuckerberg’s dream of a working world in which employees become avatars in virtual boardrooms, it hasn’t stopped a new approach to how we work from emerging.
Spatial Computing Could Be The New Frontier Of Work
Known as spatial computing, it melds AI, augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, digital twins and wearable interfaces, to integrate both the physical and digital environment in real time.
With spatial computing, workers are able to interact with digital objects as if they were in a physical space. While the technology hasn’t landed on human resources departments’ radars yet, it is moving from the experimental phase to real-world applications, HRD reported.
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Spatial Computing Use Cases
Burrus Research CEO Daniel Burrus reportedly told HRD that most “compelling use cases” for spatial computing are showing up in a handful of industries including healthcare, manufacturing, engineering, defense and training environments. That’s because it enables access to real-time data, remote collaboration and a risk-free environment to test and master complex and high-cost procedures.
Take the operating room for one example. With spatial computing a surgeon in one location can guide a nurse in a different location through a complex procedure using augmented reality, said Burrus.
Or leveraging digital twins, researchers from around the world can gather in a virtual environment to interact with molecular structures and simulate new drug compounds in real time.
In a warehouse or factory, spatial computing can be used to run simulations and work out potential problems before building the facility in the real world, according to HRD.
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Changing The Mindset
While spatial computing holds a lot of promise, and is already being used, widespread adoption requires more than deploying the technology.
Companies have to be more willing to trust their employees, adopt a completely new workflow and change their view of the relationship between employees and their digital tools.
Sheryl Sleeva, director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership and professor of entrepreneurship and innovation at Gordon College, reportedly described it as a “new kind of human-machine partnership,” one in which the technology becomes a trusted partner and not something that will replace the worker.
While it may be years before spatial computing truly takes off, it’s not a question of if but when. The companies that start thinking about it today rather than scrambling to catch up later, stand to benefit and shape what the future of spatial computing looks like, HRD reported.
While the original vision of the metaverse workplace may be evolving, interest in immersive productivity and spatial computing tools continues to grow. Immersed is one company focused on virtual workspace technology designed to help professionals collaborate and work inside immersive digital environments as next-generation workplace tools continue developing.
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This article Metaverse Out Spatial Computing In — The Future Of Work Looks Nothing Like Mark Zuckerberg Imagined originally appeared on Benzinga.com
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