The grand metaverse that tech enthusiasts couldn’t stop talking about last year remains a distant goal for the industry, but this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas showcased some of its building blocks as they begin to materialize. Numerous experiments were conducted despite the limited audience, including attempts to integrate a physical business and its employees into a completely virtual city and experimenting with the sensation of being shot in a video game. Clearly, the race to make the parallel world of the metaverse a reality was at the heart of the latest CES 2022.
The metaverse has been a hot topic of conversation, but what exactly does it mean? In simple terms, the metaverse is a combination of several technological elements, including virtual reality, augmented reality, and video where users “live” in a digital universe. Those who believe in the potential of this universe and eagerly await its realization have constructed an almost real representation of what this virtual world would be like with almost physical interactions among people from different locations, events bringing together a dispersed audience in the same space, virtual travels around the world, etc.
Indeed, the dream of living in a parallel virtual world is not as new as it seems. It dates back well before the 2000s and is directly linked to the birth of the internet. According to Steve Koenig, Vice President of Research at the Consumer Technology Association (CTA): “We are beginning to talk about the metaverse now in the same way we started talking about the Internet in the early 1990s. And so, if you remember that time, when we were all using 56k modems and dial-up Internet service, it was impossible to imagine what we would be doing online today, and I think the same is true with the metaverse.”
The recent interest in the metaverse is only the fruit of the controversy created by Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of the new Meta (formerly Facebook). The rebranding of the giant company is about acknowledging a change that has already taken place within the entity. Zuckerberg has invested billions of dollars—at least $10 billion this year alone—in building the metaverse, a broad and immersive vision of the internet drawn from the pages of science fiction novels like Snow Crash and Ready Player One.
Facebook’s founder believes it could be five to ten years before the main features of the metaverse become commonplace. Nevertheless, some aspects of the metaverse are already operational, including virtual reality headsets, ultra-fast broadband speeds, NFTs, etc., although they may not be accessible to everyone.
At the same time, software giant Microsoft is already using holograms and developing extended reality (XR) applications with its Microsoft Mesh platform, which combines features of the physical world we know with the power of augmented and virtual reality. The company has also unveiled plans to add new features to its Microsoft Teams software in 2022 through the introduction of mixed reality that includes holograms and virtual avatars. Also in the works for this year: 3D virtual connected spaces for retail and workplace environments.
A week after Facebook announced it was rebranding to Meta to focus on a metaverse where people can meet and connect virtually using any device, Nike is among the first major brands preparing to dive into the metaverse. The apparel giant just announced the acquisition of RTFKT Studios described as “a leading brand leveraging cutting-edge innovation to deliver next-gen collectibles that merge culture and gaming.” Nike hopes to provide the startup with the funding needed to further explore the possibilities offered by the metaverse, this emerging digital universe where consumers will be introduced to and interact with a parallel existence to what they have always known. Mind-blowing!
During CES 2022, several companies took the lead to unveil their technological advancements likely to contribute to the implementation of the metaverse. This includes Hyundai, Shiftall, Owo, Touchcast, and others. One of the main items on the menu for the 2022 edition is transportation, increasingly electric and autonomous. But that’s not all! Predictions suggest that the metaverse will invade all industries. At CES, other sectors showed up, including food technology, space technology, and NFTs.
The fascinating conquest of space also aligns with the metaverse to serve space enthusiasts and fans of space tourism, which has gained a lot of momentum recently, since COVID-19. Instead of bringing people back to space, it might just be about bringing space back to them.
While some of the necessary technology is available today and other pieces work well in labs, breakthroughs are still needed in display technology, miniaturization, battery life, and cost to create headsets that are both comfortable, affordable, and can last more than a few hours.
After all, the broader idea of a single and interoperable metaverse where you can easily move and take your belongings from one company to another remains theoretical. Many companies have committed to supporting this goal, but few have started integrating it into their plans. The complete vision of a shared 3D digital dimension is likely to materialize over a decade, but it won’t emerge fully formed, all in one piece. Instead, it will appear in pieces, awkward and disjointed, before merging into something both functional and useful.