As CIO of a mid-sized manufacturing company, I try to see new technologies through the lens of how they will impact my organization or industry, or how we could use that technology to be more productive, efficient, or profitable. Most of the news about the Metaverse seems to be focused on a very futuristic vision of the world where everyone lives in a digital space 24 hours a day, owning property, going to work, buying things, attending concerts and sports events, and social interactions. While this may indeed be what the future looks like, I’m more interested in what the emerging technology that the Metaverse is built on will provide soon, maybe the next two to five years.
From what I’ve seen demonstrated so far, the human interface into the Metaverse will take one of three forms:
- Virtual Reality: This is the fully immersive experience where you wear a headset and see the Metaverse all around you in 3D.
- Augmented Reality: Here you just wear special glasses that allow you to see the real world, but it is overlayed with information or visuals.
- Device Screens: Like a video game where you use a computer or phone or tablet and see a 2D representation of a view into the Metaverse.
I bring this up because if you only think about the fully immersive virtual reality interface, it’s harder to imagine living your life that way. I have a VR headset that I’ve played around with and I can really only wear it for a little while before it gets heavy and tiring. It’s also depressing to think about the social ramifications: it’s bad enough to see a crowd of people all staring at their phones, but a sea of people wearing VR headsets all day just doesn’t seem practical. I am considering the VR version to be an occasional use case when it is most helpful to be completely inside the Metaverse. I expect that AR and phones/computers will be more commonly used.
With that in mind, here are a few ways that companies are starting to use the Metaverse technologies:
Immersive Shopping Experience
For companies that sell products ranging from eyeglasses, makeup, and clothing to furniture and real estate, it can make a big difference to their customers to experience that product in an immersive way before they buy it. Perfect Corp offers AI-Powered Virtual Makeup, for a “true-to-life virtual makeover experience in real time.” Several eyeglass sellers, such as EyeBuy Direct provide a virtual try-on, so you can see what you will look like in their glasses. Macy’s offers the ability to see how a piece of furniture will look in your space in their 3D room designer. And Matterport makes a solution for creating digital twins for immersive real estate 3D virtual tours.
Gamification of Learning Tools
Learning, including job training, can benefit from an immersive experience as well. Google Expedition is a learning tool that uses VR and AR. You can either use full VR glasses, or just hold your phone in front of you and move around. And Google’s Tour Creator makes it easy to build virtual tours that can be experienced from any device.
Collaboration
Over the past few years, we have all grown accustomed to working on virtual teams that are separated by distance. That usually takes the form of Zoom or Teams video calls or shared whiteboards. Meta has released a platform that allows you to use Oculus Quest for work collaboration. Avatour, MeetinVR, and GartherInVR all let you conduct live 360 degree virtual meetings.
Conclusion
These are just a few of the new Metaverse-related technologies that are available to help small and medium businesses dip their toes in the water right now. I’m excited to see which types of interaction take hold—VR, AR, or regular device screens, and how all these various unconnected technologies will come together in a more cohesive network of experiences.
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