Cross Reality Workspace

Cross Reality (XR) is a fusion of cyber-information and physical constructions interactively linked through a sensory interface. Users operate in a hybrid form of reality by bringing digital content into the physical world and physical behaviour and materiality into the digital world.

The home office is an alternative for people who live further away from the city and the XR technology allows them to gap the distance.

This thesis implements the software of teleportation using depth-sensing technology provided by Empathic Computing Lab to explore remote collaboration from an architectural perspective. 

How does this teleportation technology fit into architecture and create different possibilities of collaboration in terms of space-oriented rather than user-oriented? 

Setting the background of the home office, the Cross Reality working space challenges ordinary office activities by meeting the demand for long-distance communication and interactive working behaviour, and providing a real-time collaboration experience.

The usage and capabilities of the home office vary according to different occupations. 

This thesis also experiments with how to incorporate the flexibilities of other architectural elements by changing their geometries and colours to provide a more tangible interface, and using digital information and sensors as architectural elements. 

With a focus on architectural space, this thesis explores functional and spatial solutions for facilitating home workers. Three scenarios of applying XR technology into the home office are investigated: 

● Collaboration between AR and VR

● Collaboration between VR and VR 

● Digital enhancement of physical space without the use of headsets

By building a 1:1 scale prototype of the proposed home office, the architectural design and requirements responding to the teleportation technology are explored and demonstrated.