Voyager Legend and iMeet: Smart headset and cloud virtual meetings

Virtual meetings save companies a lot of money by cutting travel costs and providing instant, collaborative communication. But the virtual meeting experience can be awkward at times because–we’re human. Now the cloud can help. Plantronics, Inc., a global leader in audio communications for businesses and consumers, and PGi a global leader in virtual meetings for more than 20 years, have teamed up to provide a virtual conferencing solution that leverages the power of contextual intelligence.

Virtual Meets Physical

The Plantronics Voyager Legend UC headset uses first-of-its-kind Smart Sensor technology to detect when a user puts the headset on, presses mute, and also reacts to voice commands. The Legend UC headset, when coupled with PGi’s cloud-based social video conferencing solution called iMeet, signals to other virtual meeting guests the current status of its wearer. iMeet will know if the user is wearing their UC headset and if they are available to take a video call or if they are busy and unable to meet online. Virtual meetings are now more effective with this simpler, smarter approach, free from confusion and the awkward “Ummm, hello? Are you there?” as physical presence is automatically detected and communicated for you.

With a single tap on their headset, users can launch an iMeet meeting and signal other meeting guests that they’re available. This seamless transition from the physical world to the virtual is possible because Plantronics designs their UC headsets for broad compatibility using an open development platform. PGi created iMeet and tapped the power of the Legend UC headset via Plantronics Spokes SDK, which allows developers to integrate contextual information such as mobile phone caller ID, mobile phone call state, proximity to a connected PC and headset wearing state.

“By incorporating information from the physical world, context aware software can dramatically improve business productivity” (Plantronics, 2013).

Virtual environments such as video conferencing and online chat are greatly improved by the increased awareness of our physical human interface devices (HID).

Voyager Legend UC

The ultimate goal for Plantronics and PGi is to allow unified communications (UC) technology to enhance the way people communicate. The less conscious effort people have to muster in order to communicate effectively in virtual environments, the easier it becomes to express ourselves across great distances and cold technology which reduces the effects of physical communication. Now with smart headset technology coupled with smart software, virtual communication takes a great leap forward.

Sources:
PGi and Plantronics Power Smarter Working with Next-Generation Integration

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