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Working from home for almost a decade, I often prefer to wake up slowly and do my work in bed on a laptop. The only problem with this is that a laptop screen is hard to see and requires lots of tab switching compared to three 32" curved monitors, with two 27" vertical monitors sandwiching a 50" TV as is with my main office setup. It's quite the drawback! However...
Merely out of curiousity, I Googled to see if the Meta Quest 3 had come down in price. It hadn't. I have the 1st version and haven't really been in much of a hurry to upgrade in that I haven't really used it all that much for the implied intended use for games but figured I'd check anyway.
As I was researching a little more, I saw that the Meta Quest 3 has better AR (Augmented Reality) integration. Essentially what this means is that you can view everything around you in full color and in better definition and also have your virtual environment as an overlay to your surroundings. This got me to thinking about the possibilities of this "wake up in the morning and working" situation.
Seeing that there are a few virtual desktop applications available that support connecting to your PC wirelessly and creating multiple virtual monitors I pictured laying in bed with three 32" screens at my disposal in a multi-screen virtual office having the advantage of the same resources that I have in my work-at-home office where I tend to feel glued to out of principle--although principle doesn't really have anything to do with productivity for as long as you're working and doing your job. It's a mental thing.
Having seen that it's potentially doable, I made the plunge and I await the weekend to play around with the possibilities. Being an Amazon Vine participant, I've already ordered 4 or 5 free head straps to review for the best fit.
I'm so excited! Can it be done? Will I end up selling my real screens? Will I end up moving my virtual office to the community swimming pool getting the best Florida tan ever and obtain raccoon eyes that even raccoons will be jealous of? The journey begins.
05/03/2024
It'd be nice to take no hardware wherever you go in VR. I type words in a fraction of a second in normal life. A typed word literally sounds like one key stroke.
Meta's virtual keyboard hand tracking is limited to only two index fingers pointing and selecting the keys on the virtual keyboard pretty much like you would on your phone or an iPad. This will not be productive when it comes down to everyday work scenarios.
In the Virtual Desktop app I was able to access each of the six screens on my PC but had to toggle between them all. I want them all--at least three--there at all times without having to toggle. There are other apps in the Meta universe, but I haven't had a chance to check them out as of yet. Baby steps.
I saw a comment on a forum, that it took us awhile to get used to using a keyboard & a mouse. Give it time, and we can get used to a virtual one if it's digitally possible and done correctly. Sure hope so.
Ultimate vision is to just put the headset on and go to work with no loss in productivity.
05/16/2024
Via lots of experimentation, my main goal in my digital life, since the mid-2000s, was to be able to do everything on any device that I can do on my main computer. Have my data accessible from everywhere. So being tied to my PC in VR just doesn't seem feasible to me. VR should be independent and effective. I shouldn't have to tier to another device to be efficient.
The platform needs a lot of work. Browsers need a lot of work! While it may be cool to literally walk around your house and place Facebook, Twitter, email, Netflix and other random screens throughout your house, that's more entertainment value than production value.
I do 99.9% of my work in a browser. While I can log into the ticketing system, check my email, even log into Teams, browse through my tickets first thing in the morning in VR and assign them to myself, I can't really be productive because I can't access any developer tools in a VR browser. I can't troubleshoot anything. Bookmark management is simply horrid.
From a business perspective, VR might be nice for audible collaboration, but it's a gimmick at this point. It lacks strong applications that we use in the real world on developed non-VR platforms to be a productive tool. As it stands now, it's just a gamer's paradise.
And let it be said, a heavy headset on your face DOES wear on you after about 45 minutes, regardless of the head straps you use. The weight is the weight no matter how hard you try to balance it with equal weight head straps sitting on the top of your head. I am fortunate to have an Amazon Vine account and I went to town on free head straps, reviewing them as a result, but there is one thing in common--no matter what head strap you wear, there is facial exhaustion with the weight of wearing a computer on your face for an extended period of time.
There ARE glasses that you can wear with a little more than the weight of sunglasses, but you pretty much get one virtual monitor. With that said, might be better than a laptop? I might check into that concept next, but I highly doubt it's a productive tool beyond entertainment value as well.
About the Author
Currently a Lakewood Ranch, Florida resident, Philip has authored various interactive blog websites since the early 2000’s. Most content will be based primarily on matters of opinion as usual.