Metacom will be the “hot chicken” of the tech industry in 2022, attracting a number of tech giants to compete. The Forbes biweekly website recently reported that the global metaverse market is expected to reach $5 trillion by 2030, and 2023 May be the key year to determine its development direction, and listed four development trends for the next year.
The stag jostled for the high ground
Just as search engines and social media were the technological drivers behind Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, respectively, marketing and advertising will be the driving force behind the metacombe (Web 3.0) “flying into the home”.
Although the concept has yet to be fully embraced, everyone from the giants of international finance to global fashion have begun to build their own meta-universes. The appeal of this model is clear: Metacomes, with their focus on customer experience and one-on-one connections, are an alternative channel of communication.
On top of that, social media and search are largely controlled by the likes of Google and Meta; And the metaverse is still a crowded and undecided field.
In 2023, companies will be going all out to grab the virtual high ground — whether by building their own platforms or occupying existing ones. For example, Meta created its own virtual reality social platform called Horizon, which lets people create their own avatars in a virtual world; Fortnite has evolved from a popular multiplayer game to an online space where people socialize and big-name musicians hold virtual concerts; Decentraland, a virtual reality platform, is a fully decentralized, user-owned virtual world on a blockchain. There are a number of events taking place every day, including art exhibitions, music festivals, games, and corporate launches. Last year, more than 80 celebrities in the US hosted a concert on Decentraland.
No one knows exactly what the winning strategy is, but one thing is for sure — you have to be in it.
A clever marriage with digital twinning
According to Forbes.com, 2023 will see the convergence of two major trends: metacomes and “digital twinning” (virtual simulations of real-world products, processes or operations) : from wind farms to Formula One racing cars, designers are recreating physical objects in virtual worlds and stress-testing their efficiency.
Another use of metaverse technology in the corporate world is for tasks such as employee training. Consulting giant Accenture, for example, has created a metaverse environment called the “NTH Floor,” which has the main features of a real office and allows employees to perform many human-resources-related tasks in the virtual world.
Metaverse collaborative work environments, such as BMW’s augmented reality lab, which is used to design new products and build models, will also become increasingly popular, as teams research new methods of working remotely while still staying in touch with colleagues.
In fact, back in 2021, Metaverse Platform company head Mark Zuckerberg proposed the “Infinity Office” project, which is a metaverse to make telecommuting even more shared work space. Each employee has his or her own avatar, and can enter the virtual office from every corner of the world, and can interact with the avatar of colleagues, which is more in line with the experience of the physical world than simply telecommuting.
Virtual and augmented reality are surging ahead
At its core, the metaverse is about providing immersive experiences, and as such, many of the ideas that people interact with involve immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed/Extended Reality (MR/XR).
The giants are also hunkering down in this direction, and 2023 will see a lot of new developments. A new version of its popular Quest virtual reality headset is due out in 2023. Companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft are also set to release new VR/AR/MR Headsets.
In addition, the whole body tactile suit field will also usher in a new atmosphere. The ultimate purpose of virtual reality scene is to provide people with a real virtual world, so it must have the participation of the five senses. As visual and auditory technologies continue to improve, the need for digital olfactory “immersion” has naturally increased, and several startups are experimenting with technologies that can introduce smells into people’s virtual experiences.
OVR Technology, for example, has developed a way to incorporate smells into virtual reality. The company has developed a product the size of a candy box that is mounted on a virtual headset. When the user puts on the helmet, they enter a virtual world where a box full of roses appears in front of them and the user can smell the actual flowers. The company hopes to create a more immersive metaverse through the olfactory dimension.
More advanced avatar technology blossomed
Many of the metacomes’ ideas and concepts involve people’s digital avatars — the images that users present in the virtual world and when they interact with other users. This avatar may look like us, or like a cartoon character, or like something wonderful that could never exist in the real world.
Metaverse Platforms recently developed almost photo-quality technology that lets users look almost exactly like they do in the real world. Technologies like Ready Player Me and Zepeto allow people to create avatars and then place them in many different virtual worlds and environments, rather than being limited to a specific platform.
In 2023, we’ll see more advances and refinements, such as motion capture technology, which allows our avatars to adopt their own unique gestures and body language. Now, according to a paper published in September, Metaverse Platforms has proposed a full-body motion capture solution powered primarily by the predictive power of artificial intelligence, using only Quest virtual reality glasses. (Liu Xia/Science and Technology Daily)
Source: Science and Technology Daily
