18 Virtual teleportation

Virtual teleportation

Technologists are opening up digital portals—making virtual teleportation a plausible reality.

Transforming communication and collaboration is at the heart of Varjo Teleport VR. The headset, launched in October 2021 by Helsinki-based tech manufacturer Varjo, uses the Varjo Reality Cloud platform, which allows for photorealistic virtual teleportation.

Meta is also betting big on virtual reality (VR). “By 2030, the new generations of Oculus will allow users to teleport from one place to another without moving from their couch,” Mark Zuckerberg told The Information’s 411 podcast.

Microsoft Mesh uses mixed reality (MR) to create interconnected worlds where the physical and digital come together. The selling point with Microsoft’s new platform is that people in different physical locations are able to collaborate and work in real time on the same project via holographic experiences across different devices. “You can actually feel like you’re in the same place with someone sharing content or you can teleport from different mixed reality devices and be present with people even when you’re not physically together,” said Alex Kipman, Microsoft’s technical fellow.

London-based design practice Space Popular proposes an even more ambitious concept—a civic infrastructure that allows for virtual teleportation. The idea was delivered in November 2021 at Dezeen 15 online festival, with the two cofounders envisaging a “threaded network of virtual textiles that our virtual selves pull aside to move between virtual environments.”

Why it’s interesting Distance is becoming less of an obstacle. As people spend more time working, socializing and collaborating online, technology is paving the way for teleportation into a new virtual dimension that offers more intimate, close-toreality in-person interactions.