Creating a Fully Formed Metaverse

The term metaverse refers to a convergence of our physical reality with augmented reality AR virtual reality VR and other digital technologies When it is completely developed a person39s avatar could easily glide between different metaverse experiences created by different organizations As exciting or scary as that may be there are a pile of brainteasers that need to be untangled before this is completely realizedquotI39m excited because I see creativity and technology coming together to transform humanityquot said Dave Meeker Global Chief Innovation Officer at dentsu International39s Isobar unit quotI lead teams creating digital experiences for all sorts of businesses whether that be B2B and enterprise kind of stuff to really exciting brand experiencesquot Meeker also plays a global leadership role at the overall dentsu conglomerate as an advisor on emerging technologies trends and innovationquotOur space is changing from making people want things to making things that people wantquot he explained quotAnd it appears that what people want are new types of experiencesquotTo create immersive metaverse experiences there are quota couple of large companies scanning the world around us like crazyquot said Valentin Heun Vice President of Innovation Engineering at PTC which creates AR experiences in the industrial field quotIt39s an arm39s race Everyone wants to own that platform that foundational layerquotWhile Heun didn39t say which companies he was referring to a number of large enterprises are known to be actively pursuing metaverse businesses among them Apple Meta namp233e Facebook Epic Games Microsoft the computing company Vidia Snapchat and gaming platform Roblox Also Spatial represented on the panel by its Cofounder and Chief Product Officer Jinha Lee has created a free AR app that allows avatars to show up in real environmentsOne of the big questions hovering over the metaverse space relates to whether certain companies will come to control what it will eventually look like and how it39s used Take for example Facebook quotWhat Facebook did is double down on VR aspectsquot Lee said quotSo instead of it coming to me I39m going into this VR world There39s a debate that needs to happen on whether that constitutes the metaversequotAnother critical issue involves the interconnection between different virtual universes at such a huge scale that a vast number of people can travel between them effortlessly That involves data interoperability quotthe ability to bring your assets bring your identity bring your avatar across a lot of different experiencesquot said Savannah Niles a product and design leader involved with AR and VRThat will require certain universal standards quotIt39s a matter of how this is federated and how it comes together so you can scale beyond any individual view of it and users can extend across many different realmsquot said Joe Paradiso the Alexander W Dreyfoos Professor at MIT Media LabThere39s another issue that may seem a little hard to wrap your mind around The concept of computer files will be upended quotFor the metaverse to work we can39t think on the file levelquot Huen said quotWe have to think on the 3D platform levelquotquotWe have to think about how we collide these worlds and create one service storefront next to another one and how we have a true distributed metaverse that is overlaying the physical world and has deep roots in the physical worldquot he added quotWe39re still working on that And it39s super difficult to get out of these gameengine desktop conceptsquotVideo game engines can only take us so far Heun explained quotFolks from Epic see that They39ve started to talk about that We have to build a world engine something that39s scaled into the world that39s like the internet but 3D Probably in another 10 years we can meet up and talk about thatquotThere39s also a need to develop more sophisticated ways of reading facial expressions on avatars quotHow do we translate all the cues that we have as human beings when we39re actually with each other the way that you can make a look and people can read itquot asked Mary Lou Jepsen founder of Openwater whose goal is to see deep into the body with the detail of a highresolution 3D cameraThen there39s that pesky little problem called monetization quotWe39ve seen in the last couple of years there are pitfalls with building some of these platforms with ad revenue alonequot Niles said quotMore sustainable monetization models from content creators are going to be really crucialquotAs part of that there are questions about whether consumers will think of the metaverse as they once viewed 3D TV sets Maybe it will seem cool at first but ultimately it might not catch on While Facebook is bent on enticing consumers with its relatively affordable headset Oculus Quest 2 at 299 the visual quality is reportedly not that greatParadiso noted the situation with the more sophisticated headsets quotIt39s incredible what they can do incredible how small they are incredible the computation that happensquot he said However they can be costly quotThey still come at a sacrificequotThere39s also a limited number of people capable of building all the metaverse experiences Today 3D artists and developers are in very short supply and the ones that exist are expensive to hire Meeker notedquotThere39s a lot of competition for themquot he continued quotSo how do we keep moving the concept forward beyond the hype that we39re experiencing now into reality with content creation tools You know what39s going to fund all that The business model you mentioned It can39t just be ad supportedquotToday there are at least a hundred companies that are developing metaverse platforms Meeker said He expects that in the next three years the industry will start to pick the winners In 10 years he predicts that the interoperability problems should be resolved and the type of device one uses to access a metaverse for example it might be a contact lens won39t be that much of an issueDespite all the towering hurdles no one on the panel seemed discouraged about developing a fullfledged metaverse experience They seemed excited by the challengesFor Heun the key lies in creating an environment where concepts and ideas come from a variety of different people quotIf we have one big company putting a couple of billion dollars into it saying 39This is it this is how it39s going to be39 we probably won39t get therequot he warnedClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Creating a Fully Formed Metaverse

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Janet Stilson

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