Also Microsoft is already thinking about the Metaverse and announces the first platform to work and meet in virtual spaces, where there are no language barriers
It’s not only Facebook (or better, Meta) to bet on the Metaverse: also Microsoft sees in this Internet 2.0, made of virtual and mixed reality and common spaces recreated on the computer, the future of technology. During the Ignite 2021 event, which began yesterday, the company with the highest value in the world has clearly demonstrated that it intends to maintain this value for a long time to come.
Just as Facebook-Meta is planning to bring millions of users into the virtual space from smart working, through Horizon Workrooms, so Microsoft wants to do the same thing with Mesh for Teams. Mesh is a virtual platform, quietly announced in March 2021 by Microsoft and, now, launched in a big way just when everyone is talking about Metaverse. Just to tell everyone: the Metaverse is by no means a joke, nor a dystopian vision of the American tech community, but the next “place to be”.
What is Microsoft Mesh for Teams
Microsoft Mesh is a platform through which users can meet and interact remotely, in the form of two- or three-dimensional avatars and move within simulated spaces, but which reproduce the appearance of a real office, a meeting room or any other type of place.
The avatars not only reflect the user’s appearance, but also imitate gestures and expressions after learning them with artificial intelligence.
Naturally, to “enter” this Metaverse made in Microsoft you will need to use a virtual or augmented reality viewer. Just as naturally, the first visor with which you will be able to do it is produced by Microsoft itself: it’s called HoloLens 2 and, unlike Oculus Quest 2 by Meta, it has a very high cost: it starts from 3,899 euros.
Thanks to Mesh, every company will be able to create its own virtual spaces, in which its employees can work, receive customers, do training and everything that is usually done in a company headquarters.
In these rooms, then, there will be no language barriers: in fact, Microsoft has started to develop its automatic translation system, which will allow people speaking different languages to understand each other more and more accurately: it will be enough for everyone to enter the Mesh Metaverse and, together with the avatar of the interlocutor, the translation of his speech will also be shown.
Microsoft Metaverse: when it arrives
Microsoft says that a first version of Mesh for Teams will be available from the first half of 2022. It will be, however, a kind of beta that will mainly serve users to familiarize themselves with the platform, while developers fine-tune it for the final version.