Business use a virtual reality for computer maker Dell

The sight of office workers wearing virtual-reality headsets will be commonplace in the future, says Dell.

The site of office staff wearing virtual reality headsets at their desks will be common in future. That’s the prediction of US computer maker Dell which says it’s been committed to VR and AR from the start.

Frank Azor, vice president & general manager, Alienware and XPS, told The Australian that VR would offer traders a virtual experience of being surrounded by an infinite number of monitors.

“If you go to Wall Street and look at a financial trader, they have big monitors in front of them to get as much information as they can. In virtual reality you can have an infinite amount of displays around you and displays behind you.”

Mr Azor said communications using virtual reality was one of the key focus areas Dell was targeting with a head-mounted display it was developing with Microsoft. “Oculus (VR) and HTC already have the gaming immersion factor solved. That head mounted display will be more affordable and one of her primary use cases is going to be virtual-reality based communications.,” Mr Azor told The Australian.

Joe Olmsted, director of Alienware Product Planning, said Dell has been a believer in virtual, augmented and mixed reality devices since “day one” and was the first to announce partnerships with Oculus VR and HTC.

Dell and its Alienware subsidiary have partnerships with Oculus VR and HTC/Steam to supply fully computers that work natively with their VR headsets. All Alienware and some Dell XPS notebooks are certified for use by both.

Mr Azor said Dell had also launched a commercial VR program with its partners, and had centres of excellence around the world where customers could explore use cases of Dell powering VR solutions. “We think commercial will be as big an opportunity as consumer applications are going to be,” Mr Azor said.

Alienware already has a firm partnership with Melbourne free roam VR experience Zero Latency. Its Alienware notebooks are mounted in backpacks to provide a high resolution untethered VR experience as customers walk around a 400 square metre virtual environment.

Alienware also plans to provide Alienware notebooks to US theme experience The Void, which operates at Madame Tussaud’s in New York. Dell was experimenting with its own purpose built backpacks for mobile high resolution VR and was in regular contact with Magic Leap, a promising start-up in mixed reality based nearby in Miami, Florida.

Dell is yet to decide whether it builds a consumer display augmented reality. “We’re working with Microsoft with what they’re doing on HoloLens,” Mr Azor said.

Alienware rolled out a new portfolio of VR capable system in June. Its newest Area-51 gaming desktops are VR capable, as are the mid-powered Aurora and the small Alpha R2, the device used by Zero Latency in its backpacks.

All 13-inch, 15-inch and 17-inch Alienware notebooks were now VR ready out of the box. The 13-inch notebook would come to Australia in January. Mr Olmsted said Dell scouted Indie titles and worked with developers whose software aligns with Dell.