My summary of Forma Vision before using it — Enabling meetings in the Metaverse.
How does Forma Vision explain itself in the first minute? — The first thing I see on Forma Vision is a popup that mentions a name change “because Forma Vision better communicates how our service enhances remote collaboration by enabling our users to “see” (i.e. vision) the “form, shape, appearance” (i.e. forma) of authentic people or objects such that you feel as if in the same place together.
Once I’ve dismissed the popup, it reads “Be together, anywhere”. Does this mean that Forma Vision is similar to online meeting platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams?! Scrolling down, there’s a brief explanation about Forma Vision’s ‘holographic meeting platform’:
Watching an earlier GeekWire interview, Adam Kirk — CEO at Forma Vision — explains how the company then called Omnivor specialised in volumetric video content. This is a new video content, enabling users to view video content from multiple perspectives. Whereas in traditional film or video formats, the camera can be positioned in the centre to create 360 degree content, with volumetric video there no longer is a foreground or background. Instead, there a lots of sensors capturing the motion from all possible angles and directions.
Since then, Kirk’s business has pivoted to enabling face to face meetings and workshops remotely, using volumetric technology to create more engaging and interacting meetings and workshops. Technology giants like Cisco have also entered this space, with their Webex Hologram product currently available to a select group of customers.
How does Forma Vision work? — The first thing to do is to create a meeting room in Forma Vision, similar to how you’d create a room using 2D video conferencing software.
Meeting participants can create their own holograms, using 2 or more cameras to stream a real-time hologram of themselves into a Forma Vision meeting room. This is different to Meta’s Horizon Workrooms where people can only use avatars of themselves in meetings.
Main learning point: Clearly early days for volumetric video technology but I can see the appeal of applying this technology to remote meetings. Instead of using avatars, Forma Vision creates holograms of meeting participants to make meetings feel more engaging and interactive.
Related links for further learning:
- https://www.geekwire.com/2021/omnivor-raises-2-7m-pandemic-spurs-interest-holographic-media-nike-t-mobile-others/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volumetric_capture
- https://arcturus.studio/blog/2022/04/05/what-is-volumetric-video/
- https://www.businesstravelnewseurope.com/The-Future-of-Meetings/Can-the-Metaverse-dwell-between-Zoom-and-in-person
- https://www.verdict.co.uk/metaverse-holograms-avatars-future-of-work/
- https://venturebeat.com/business/holographic-vr-meetings-just-became-real-whether-youre-ready-or-not/
- https://www.cbinsights.com/company/omnivor
- https://projectworkplace.cisco.com/capabilities/hologram
- https://www.startup-weekly.com/Omnivor-raises-$2.75-million-funding-to-deliver-volumetric-video-solutions-for-retail-and-communications/
