TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure is directed to creating and administering artificial reality collaborative working environments and providing interaction modes for them.

BACKGROUND

As the global marketplace increases, and challenges such as distributed teams and health concerns requiring social distancing become more prevalent, remote working and collaboration is becoming ever more common. Remote working typically involves an assortment of technologies such as remote access to shared documents, various texts-based communication services (e.g., email, instant message, text message, etc.), telephone communication, and video calling. Such remote working provides a number of benefits, such as reduced travel times, increased health and safety, and greater flexibility. However, remote workers face a number of challenges not experienced by their in-office counterparts. For example, video calls remain a pale imitation of face-to-face interactions. Understanding body language and context can be difficult with only a two-dimensional (“2D”) representation of a sender. In addition, the limitation of video calling on a flat panel display introduces an intrusive layer of technology that can distract from communication and diminishes the perception of in-person communication. Remote workers often complain of missing out on the “watercooler” conversations, and often feel forgotten by their coworkers. Further, collaboration between teams in remote locations using traditional voice or 2D communication channels have been less effective than in-person experiences, e.g., with documents and whiteboard spaces that various participants can view and work on simultaneously.

Artificial reality, extended reality, or extra reality (collectively “XR”) is a form of reality that has been adjusted in some manner before presentation to a user, which may include, e.g., virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), hybrid reality, or some combination and/or derivatives thereof. Various XR environments exist, allowing representations of users to move about and speak with one another. However, such XR environments hove not effectively been created to facilitate collaboration and do not integrate into workflows for remote workers.

