Do UC what I See?

One of the most exciting things I saw in the Lync launch last week which really got me excited was the ProtoSphere virtual world offering from Proton Media

This is a virtual reality world application that has been in use in the life sciences industry for collaborating on scientific models for quite a while. Just recently they integrated with Microsoft Lync (for outbound audio dialing) and the potential here is amazing.

My long term vision for UC is where remote workers (which I have been for most of my career, and it seems every major corporation is trending towards) are afforded the same level of interaction and collaboration as their office bound counterparts. Within the physical space, Telepresence rooms like the Polycom OTX provide a truly immersive collaboration experience for participants in the rooms, but despite interoperability with Lync – the experience for the remote participants is still a second class citizen, and far from immersive.
http://www.polycom.com/products/telepresence_video/telepresence_solutions/immersive_telepresence/otx300.html?vid=Video_OTX300_Sexy

The next logical step of all this is to combine immersive Telpresence in the real world with a remote virtual experience – eventually of course everyone will work from home and the physical spaces will go away.
Another embodiment is for the remote worker outside fixed meetings- Microsoft Research has this – see Scott Hanselmans ‘virtual persona trolley’ / Social Proxy :


Now replace the flat screen with this spherical monitor:  http://www.globalimagination.com/products.html

Global Imagination globe screen

Now create the ultimate mobile device like this MIT creation for a true real meets virtual device.