Accenture has made a strategic investment, through Accenture Ventures, in Forma Vision, a provider of live-streamed, volumetric video technology that enables 3D holographic images of people, objects and environments to be beamed into the metaverse from any office, home or other location.
Until now, the metaverse opportunity has been constrained to enterprise use cases appropriate for avatar-to-avatar interactions. Now, using Forma Vision’s low-cost, live-streaming volumetric video technology, enterprises of any size can teleport people, places and things into their metaverse experience. For example, Accenture and others have conducted executive town-halls, training, and small group meetings using Forma Vision.
“Accenture sees the metaverse as an evolving and expanding continuum of technologies that will increasingly blur the boundary between the physical and the digital and transform the way businesses and consumers interact,” said David Treat, senior managing director and global lead of Accenture’s Metaverse Continuum business group. “We believe Forma Vision’s volumetric video technology will enable more immersive, engaging interactions and help further bridge real and virtual worlds by allowing people, places and things to be more authentically represented in the metaverse.”
In March 2022, Accenture formed the Accenture Metaverse Continuum business group, which combines metaverse-skilled professionals with deep capabilities in customer experience, digital commerce, extended reality, blockchain, digital twins, artificial intelligence and computer vision to help clients design, execute and accelerate their metaverse journeys. Growing consumer and business interest in the metaverse as a creator economy and tool to enhance day-to-day tasks is expected to fuel a $1 trillion commerce opportunity by the end of 2025, according to Accenture findings released in early January 2023.
Adam Kirk, founder and CEO of Forma Vision, said “Volumetric collaboration is the future of hybrid work. Our mission is to bring truly natural communication to enterprise, to allow everyone to contribute meaningfully independent of location. With Accenture as our partner, we will deliver unparalleled collaboration experiences to a wide range of enterprise customers.”
Forma Vision is the latest company to join Accenture Ventures’ Project Spotlight, an engagement and investment program focused on investing in companies that create or apply disruptive enterprise technologies. In addition to funding, Project Spotlight connects emerging technology startups with the Global 2000 to fill strategic innovation gaps and offers extensive access to Accenture’s domain expertise and enterprise clients, helping startups harness human creativity and deliver on the promise of their technology.
“For enterprise teams, Forma Vision’s holographic meeting platform can enable remote meeting and other experiences in a highly engaging, 3D virtual format,” said Tom Lounibos, managing director, Accenture Ventures. “Volumetric video allows people to show up as their authentic selves in the metaverse. Imagine having your favorite music artist perform in your living room. We believe video holograms can dynamically enhance everything from e-commerce, gaming and other media, sports and entertainment experiences to virtual healthcare, medicine and even product design.”
