Vive XR Suite and the future of work — interview with President of HTC EMEA
Immersive technologies, especially slightly more mature and established VR, are increasingly entering the corporate space. Large companies, due to their scale, are a very interesting type of client. The popularization of personal computers or mobile technologies has taught us that they are the customer, showing up in line right after the so-called early adopters, who popularize market novelties. It is to the corporation that the Vive XR Suite package announced by HTC is directed. It is one of the first offers prepared primarily for business. As part of the premiere of the new XR product, I was able to talk to Graham Wheeler, HTC’s director for Europe. He shared with me the strategy behind Vive XR Suite, his thoughts on the current immersion technology market, and his vision for the future.
Let’s start with what Vive XR Suite really is. It is a package of five existing VR applications. The selected VR tools complement each other, focusing primarily on the communication needs of business customers. Each of them, however, provides a slightly different set of functionalities:
Vive Sync is the only app created by HTC. It is a fairly universal solution that allows you to conduct meetings in virtual reality. They are held in virtual rooms, the appearance of which today is available in 3 varieties. Realistic, customizable avatars are used to represent each participant. HTC prepared a dedicated mobile app helping create a custom avatar. During the meeting, we have a large screen at our disposal, where we can display a movie, website, or presentation. It is also possible to work with 3D models. It was Vive Sync that we used to interview the director of HTC
Vive Campus is a tool that offers virtual office space. The solution is based on the VirBELA platform. It is not a new solution, as the company has been operating on the market since 2012. Interestingly, for most of its existence, it focused on desktop solutions, offering mechanics in the shape of that known from games such as GTA using the third-person view. Support for virtual reality was introduced in April 2020 and it’s in experimental mode now. As a part of the platform, we have both an open campus and individual spaces for employees, including common spaces. As in Vive Sync, we assume the role of avatars that can communicate with each other in both text and sound. The warning itself can be adapted to our needs.
Vive Sessions is designed for larger conferences and meetings. In this case, HTC used the Engage platform, which is quite a popular solution in this area. In its assumptions, the platform focuses mainly on experiences related to education and training. It is able to handle meetings of up to 50 people in over 21 types of spaces. We also have very large editing options at our disposal. Starting from auditoriums or classrooms to completely designing worlds or realities represented by 360-degree video. The platform also offers virtual quizzes and surveys.
Vive Social is a more entertaining oriented solution in the package. Based on the popular VRChat communicator, it allows you to participate in virtual events. The platform is strongly based on the community built around it. There are over 250,000 user-created worlds to discover. We also get a great deal of freedom in creating our avatar. We can become a Manga character, a robot, or a zombie. Together with friends or colleagues, we can draw, sculpt, or play simple games.
Vive Museums is an environment that allows you to commune with art. It is based on the Museum of Other Realities (MOR) platform. It provides an unforgettable experience, taking us into imaginary artistic worlds and allowing us to fully immerse ourselves in them. By supporting artists, it provides tools for creating interactive installations, providing a completely new means of expression.
Despite the fact that the applications come from different vendors, they have to show some consistency. It is primarily a tribute to large corporations that approach smaller entities with a little more caution. From their perspective, startups are burdened with considerable risk. It results, for example, from the issue of guarantees or long-term licenses that an unstable startup may not be able to bear.
We are not making a triple work for the developer, we are expanding their ability to sell in. Large corporates may not be so keen on signing up for each individual one of the small companies. When they’re coming to HTC you can get a subscription with one invoice and do all the normal things enterprise companies one to do.
Graham Wheeler
Roots of the Vive XR Suite
The genesis of Vive XR Suite goes back to the work on Vive Sync, the proprietary meeting platform from HTC. As we learn from its director, no startup would be ashamed of the history of the tool:
This tool was created by an engineer that was working in San Francisco, that wanted a better collaboration with engineers on the other side of the word in Taiwan. He created this to have better design reviews, so looking at different designs of components. Then we went on and have meetings inside it and then another engineer said — That’s great but what if we made avatars more facially featured? — that’s why we introduced mouth tracking and lower face tracking, to make avatars more human. That’s something that started us on our journey to XR Suite.
Graham Wheeler
During our meeting, I had the opportunity to see live face tracking. Graham Wheeler used the Vive Pro VR headset, equipped with eye-tracking and a special attachment for lip tracking. While eye-tracking can be seen more and more on the market, lip tracking is still not very popular. This year we were able to see the HTC pickup in action.
During the meeting, these elements really made a huge difference. Despite the fact that the graphics in VR headset, especially the all-in-one ones, are far from photorealism, the full mapping of facial expressions significantly increased the immersion and comfort of the conversation.
The partnership model of HTC Vive
I must admit that HTC has decided to take a rather interesting approach. Instead of building applications on their own or buying existing companies, they opted for a partnership model. This strategy fits in with the company’s broader approach to the market. HTC has been focusing on cooperation with developers and building an open ecosystem for a long time.
A perfect example is Vive X, a startup accelerator from the XR area, managed by HTC. Until today, the program has already had its 4th edition. Interestingly, some of the tools in the Vive XR Suite have undergone this acceleration.
A number of companies like Vive Sessions are coming through from Vive X acceleration program. We’ve have been working with them for many, many years and helping them with the development working in tandem. That’s what we believe in. It’s not just about HTC controlling the environment. For the good of the ecosystem we need to expand our connections and make sure we are working with all the partners. We don’t want to be a closed environment.
Graham Wheeler
HTC focuses on creating building blocks, the base components needed to create high-quality XR experiences. Graham Wheeler mentioned the so-called VIVE Realities Pyramid. The Korean company is currently focusing on building its foundations.
XR a bit exaggerated
Although the name of the package includes the XR abbreviation, which means Mixed Reality, the package consists of 100% applications that provide VR experiences. Of course, the name can be argued with the face-tracking functionalities in some way, but it is quite a strong bend of reality. During the conversation, we learn that this abbreviation has appeared in the name not only for marketing purposes.
These tools are planned to work with XR. (…) We know that these tools are necessarily good for enabling the VR spaces and enabling the ability to have XR experiences. This (Vive XR Suite) is not a tool for the next 3 months and that’s it — this is the foundation of the pyramid. We want it to grow with us.
Graham Wheeler
In parallel with the work on Vive XR Suite, HTC is expanding its portfolio of Mixed Reality hardware equipment. We have already mentioned the extension that allows you to track the movement of the face. Another element is an overlay for the Vive Cosmos VR headset called XR Plate. It provides additional cameras on the front face of the device, thanks to which we obtain the so-called Video Passthrough — that is, transmitting video from cameras directly to displays in front of the eyes. This approach is becoming more and more popular due to the much greater immersion and simplicity compared to See-Through solutions used, for example, in Microsoft Hololens.
Both of the above-mentioned hardware components of the XR ecosystem have been presented, but are not yet available for sale. Only their appearance on the market and wider adoption will allow the Vive XR Suite package to fully live up to its name.
Spatial computing is coming
With the launch of Vive XR Suite, HTC also showed its vision of the office work of the future. This is a topic that is particularly close to my heart because of my professional projects. In the video, we can see work with virtual desktops, interaction with 3D models as well as a full transition between the virtual and real world. The whole experience is based on the Vive Cosmos VR headset with the XR Plate addition.
The project is part of the virtual work environment, which will first replace physical displays with virtual desktops suspended in space. Concepts we are already familiar with and to a limited extent available thanks to projects such as Virtual Desktop or Immersed. I myself use this approach in my daily work, seeing more advantages every day. By the way, this is another text that I am preparing in the VR headset.
Does two-dimensional, flat content presented in a spatial VR/AR environment make sense? Think about it as a certain, evolutionary step. First smartphones with Windows CE took a similar approach. We simply have to pass it. It allows lowering the entry threshold for people who are used to the traditional computer interface for years. An additional advantage is the fact that in this form we have all the applications we need to work on without the need for developers to update them.
Moving to work in a virtual environment as soon as possible will allow us to feel comfortable in it and understand its possibilities and limitations. This is an essential step for the actual transition from a two-dimensional to a fully spatial environment. This approach was 100% shared by Graham Wheeler.
The future of office work
The spatial virtualization of our software is only an element of the entire ecosystem needed for the work of the future. We both agreed that physical offices would not be replaced by XR technologies. They will complement each other, allowing for increased productivity and better and more engaging communication in teams.
It’s a bit of a mixture for us. Just to be clear we at HTC are ahead of the day, that we have more hardware and all the tools in this environment. I don’t believe the office disappears. (…) In essence, it will mean a much better or greater way of enabling interactions. I don’t believe VR will be a replacement. You walk into the office you put on your headset and you don’t talk to anyone. Things will evolve. Maybe in 15 years' time.
Graham Wheeler
The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic forced office operators to thoroughly analyze the actual advantages of their spaces. The smart move turns out to be focusing on the flexibility of space. It is important that they try to understand how technology will affect the future of their operations, and already include the use of immersion solutions in their plans today. Immersive tools introduced in advance to the strategy will allow for the creation of a new generation of defined space software.
Challenges for the XR market
Graham Wheeler has been dealing with the VR market since the first work on the Vive VR headset prepared by HTC in cooperation with Valve. As he mentioned in an interview, he had his first contact with this technology almost a decade ago. In a special test room, he had the opportunity to test the first versions of the headset, which changed his perception of technology forever.
Today, VR technology offers a much more advanced and comfortable experience than its first versions. According to the director of HTC, we are currently at the stage of segmentation of the immersion technology market.
On the one hand, we already have a well-defined area of VR games, which is currently based on PCs and focuses on developing the quality of the graphics offered and increasing immersion. On the other hand, we see the segment of advanced 3D visualization tools, which is used, for example, by the automotive industries in the enterprise area. The third area is communication and utility applications used in everyday work.
In my opinion, this third category may be crucial for the wider adoption of XR technology. It addresses a much wider group of recipients than those mentioned earlier. However, the key here is convenient and portable equipment that will easily fit into the rhythm of our day. There is no space for heavy solutions that require cables and a powerful computer here.
Next-generation hardware
HTC seems to understand hardware requirements pretty well. Let us recall the prototype of the VR headset called Proton, presented earlier this year. The headset was announced in two versions all-in-one (fully independent headset) and all-in-two (headset paired with a smartphone). The latter solution seems very interesting. On one hand, it allows the headset to be much smaller and lighter, transferring the computing power and battery to the smartphone. On the other hand, our phones are mobile offices of today. Expanding it with dedicated, comfortable headset is a natural evolution and does not introduce a high barrier to entry.
The adoption curve is another interesting issue. In recent years, we have been observing faster and faster changes in the technology market. Graham Wheeler with sentiment returned to the years 2000–2010 when mobile technologies appeared on the market. Their adoption was much faster than the popularization of desktops or laptops. In the case of spatial computing, we could set another record if the technology is introduced wisely. Thanks to the dynamic development of 3D environments, we understand spatial experiences. These can represent less of a change of mind than the introduction of a graphical interface following text-based environments.
However, we must anticipate this type of change with considerable reserve. The director of HTC shared with us an interesting anecdote related to the launch of HTC Desire HD. When the device with a 4.3 ″ screen debuted on the market, absolutely no one at HTC believed that a smartphone with a larger screen could ever be created, as it would be completely inconvenient to use. Time has shown that this assumption was completely wrong, and today we have pocket devices with more than doubled screen size. As Wheeler summed it up:
What we believe today, necessarily won’t be the future.
Graham Wheeler
This quote is a perfect ending of this article, making us remember that we should always be open to the new that is coming.
If you want to read the polish version of this article you can find it on YesEyeSee — the first polish online magazine fully focused on XR space.
