The metaverse — the virtual dimension the tech world sees as the next big thing — won’t have one big grand opening.
- Instead, it’s coming to lifein pieces all around us, in research-lab breakthroughs as well as within products available now, Axios’ Ina Fried reports.
Why it matters: These early glimpses give consumers, activists and legislators a chance to weigh in now on what they like and don’t like, shaping the digital future alongside the companies building it.
Catch up quick: Most visions of a metaverse imagine a persistent, immersive digital space shared by many companies and individuals.
- Meta executives Mark Zuckerberg and Andrew Bosworth have describedthe metaverse as “the embodied internet.” That typically involves putting on a headset and completely immersing yourself in a virtual world.
But that won’t be the only way to experience the metaverse.
- Another is via augmented-reality glasses, ideally as light as standard glasses today, with digital objects appearing over a view of the real world.
- Other devices that could usher us into the metaverse include everything from contact lenses to gloves.
The gadgets we use today won’t disappear. For reasons of convenience, affordability or personal preference, people will also engage with this more immersive world through their laptops and phones as well.
- While some of the needed technology is available and other parts are working just fine in labs, breakthroughs are still needed in display technology, miniaturization and battery life to create headsets that are comfortable, affordable and able to run for more than a couple hours at a time.
The big picture: As these pieces of metaverse tech get designed and tested in real life, the industry will discover unforeseen new uses for them — and discard some of our present visions as impractical.
- Both the tools’ evolution and users’ experiences will shape which metaverse future comes true: remote workplace, vast digital playground, utilitarian information source, or something as yet unimaginable. Or all of the above.
Reality check: Today’s metaverse tech is evolving in pieces in another sense. So far, we’re getting a bunch of competing proprietary worlds rather than the grand vision of a single shared dimension.
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Πηγή: axios.com
