A little virtual reality under the hood? Meta, the old society called Facebook, trying to impose its “metaverse” as a benchmark immersive environment for games and entertainment, Microsoft has its eye on the business applications promised by this new technology. First stop: the garage of some Canadian car dealers …
As of this summer, technicians in the Mercedes-Benz dealer network in Canada have been using a Microsoft technology called HoloLens, which allows them to get immediate remote technical assistance to tackle problems. complex mechanics.
HoloLens are massive connected glasses with cameras and small projectors that display digital data from the Internet in three dimensions on their lenses. The device creates the illusion that this digital data (text, photos and videos) is floating in the space around the user, or that it is physically hung on the back wall of the room.
From zero to mixed reality in minutes
In the case of the workstations of the 59 dealerships that Mercedes-Benz has in Canada, these photos and videos are exchanged live between technicians on site and more experienced colleagues grouped together in a support center elsewhere in the country. In mixed reality, mechanics can better exchange information since everyone sees the same information, whether in HoloLens glasses or on the screen of a workstation.
“A service call can take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes, whereas normally these cases can take days or even weeks to resolve,” says Nikhil Ondhia, vice president of customer service at Mercedes-Benz. Canada. “This avoids having to send experts across the country. Generally, about 5% to 10% of complex mechanical problems cannot be solved on the spot. “
Dealers say they are very satisfied with this new technology. Its operating cost is low and allows savings which are partly passed on to customers whose vehicle is repaired more quickly. The solution seems promising enough that Mercedes-Benz is considering extending its application to automotive service centers that are not part of its network, such as body shops, for example.
Ultimately, the German group would like to develop mixed reality tools aimed at consumers. They could see in real time virtual modifications made to a vehicle directly in front of them: body color, oversized wheels, etc.
Collision in sight
Immersive digital environments are on the rise these days. Whether it is virtual, mixed or augmented reality, they are emphasized with insistence by the major technological companies in various fields: Apple and Meta target, each in its own way, video games and connected entertainment. Microsoft, for its part, thinks it has found a better vein on the side of business applications.
It is not yet clear how much this emerging tech sector could be worth. Analysis firm GlobalData estimates that, despite very slow adoption so far, the global market for immersive environments could be worth as much as US $ 51 billion by the end of the decade.
Technical support and distance education are two niches Microsoft is banking on to set itself apart from its rivals. In addition to the automobile, sectors as diverse as the manufacturing industry and medical training are in its sights.
Already, 147 million people use its collaborative platform Teams. By comparison, around 17 million mixed or virtual reality headsets have been sold to date worldwide.
The immersive Mesh platform, presented by Microsoft in conjunction with Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté, earlier this year, will only have to plug into Teams to add to chat and video calls the third dimension they lack for become environments similar to what Meta describes as its “metaverse”.
A service call can last anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes, whereas normally these cases can take days or even weeks to resolve.
In fact, this union of Mesh and Teams will occur no later than summer 2022, Microsoft announced in early November, during a conference bringing together developers of applications for its various IT platforms.
“Our goal is to remove some of the formality of virtual spaces and increase user engagement. We believe that our tools will make teamwork more efficient and more inviting, ”said Jeff Teper, vice president of Microsoft, at the conference.
Given that Meta in turn plans to release smart glasses resembling the HoloLens in 2022, it’s not impossible that Microsoft’s and Meta’s virtual environments will collide as early as next year.
We will then know if there really is a market for these new technologies or if they will be reserved for certain very specific industries, such as auto repair, already very familiar with collisions of all kinds.