Part Two Of Our Conversation about Digital Reality Looks Squarely At The Metaverse
The other week, the company formerly known as Facebook (now: Meta) addressed their plans for the metaverse, an announcement that overlapped with the previous IKIN blog post about Digital Reality. In that blog, we floated the term “Digital Reality” as a shorthand for relaying the concept, capabilities, and expectations of modern holograms as a new dimensional technology–similar to yet distinct from other forms of digitized realities, like VR and AR. This latest news complicates our considerations further, as the metaverse promises an interactive 3D experience that warrants consideration alongside these other technologies. So, that’s what we intend to do in this week’s blog: address the metaverse head-on.
What Is The Metaverse?
First things first, let’s get some basics under our belts. Discussion of the metaverse came as part of the big announcement at Connect 2021 on October 28 that Facebook was rebranding their company name to Meta, relegating Facebook to a subsidiary role alongside other Meta properties like Instagram and WhatsApp. The company champions the metaverse as the next evolution of social media technologies, an “embodied internet”, shared across devices, that hybridizes current social media experiences and opens new options for 3D and projected interactions, that include VR, AR, and holograms. Meta goes on to claim that nearly anything one can imagine will be possible in the shared metaverse space and that its digital realm will replace physical objects like televisions, computer monitors, board games, and more. These are monumentous assertions from a company that has already revolutionized society at least once by building the world’s most popular social media platform.
What’s In A Name?
This new digital world of endless interactions is a lot to process. It also poses a similar challenge to that discussed in our last blog: how to convey new technologies to prospective, unfamiliar users. Like our consideration of digital reality, the metaverse is pulling from established signposts to build its language of expression. Universe, of course, being one side of this buzz brand conjures notions of endless expanse. The prefix “meta” (from the Greek for “with” and “across” among other translations) rides the wave of one of the most popular modern terms of the day and speaks to a sense of reflexivity, of its cross-platform intentions, of change, and it denotes a higher order structure. This name incorporates a lot of the company’s intentions for its product. But, one thing it lacks is a clear indication about what the experience of the metaverse will actually feel like.
Getting Hands On With The Metaverse
For all of Meta’s emphasis on the immersive quality and intentions of their burgeoning tech, the name does little to convey the sensory experiences of the metaverse. To address this shortcoming, Meta has proposed a global rollout of physical stores where customers can testrun the metaverse through VR and AR devices designed by the company’s Reality Labs division. While a curious approach for a company historically based in digital spaces and promoting a product touted as the next phase of remote interactions, Meta’s push for real-world retail is not a wholly novel idea. Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and other computer companies (including Meta when it was still Facebook, in a few earlier instances) have all ventured into the tangible to help sell their wares. Though, the move and announcement, on the whole, has raised more than a few eyebrows across the interwebs over the last weeks.
What Are The Early Reactions To The Metaverse?
Early reactions to the Meta name change and their plans for an expansive metaverse have been abundant and not particularly positive. Many publications, for instance, have questioned the timing of Meta’s attention-shifting announcements in the wake of damning whistleblower leaks and other bad press for the company. In regards to the technology, The New York Times expressed a healthy skepticism in noting the niche appeal of VR and AR and the high costs of related hardware. Though, the publication also acknowledged the limited success of Reality Labs’ Oculus Quest 2 and renewed interest in VR due to the in-person restrictions imparted by the pandemic. Wired painted the metaverse as little more than a continuation of the current internet trend of conglomerating its digital corners under the control of fewer and fewer companies. Many others zeroed in on problematic Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg as the real roadblock to the metaverse’s success.
The Metaverse Is Coming
What’s undeniable amongst this maelstrom of internet fervor is that the gauntlet has been thrown: the metaverse is coming. Whether Meta will live up to its lofty promises for it is as yet unclear. What is clear is that any potential prosperity will rely on multiple factors, including reliable infrastructure to meet the processing power and network speeds necessary for the metaverse to work consistently; metaverse-compatible VR, AR, and holographic devices (including those currently being developed by IKIN) at reasonable prices that will give entry to this digital world; and the support of consumers, which–in turn–requires a clear way of expressing to the masses what exactly the metaverse is.
What Does This Mean For IKIN?
As a frontrunner in dimensional technology, IKIN sees the metaverse as a promising opportunity to put the company’s holography to work in the next generation of online interactions. IKIN’s current holographic systems, the IKIN ARC desktop projector and the more compact RYZ mobile device, utilize unique 3D approaches. Both systems are cutting-edge holographic displays that can be viewed in ambient light and without the aid of VR headgear or AR glasses. And, they both utilize IKIN-original SDKs, which allows businesses and developers to easily convert 2D content into 3D and to build original holograms. Thus, it’s easy to see why this announcement of a new age of digital engagement, which relies on the very approaches currently being pioneered by IKIN, is exciting news. But, one should note that we are at the outset of this next internet evolution. And, as such, more time and more clarity are needed before anyone can confidently determine the new roles dimensional technology companies like IKIN will play in this next future.
Until then, we’ll keep you updated on all the latest and greatest industry news affecting IKIN and the world.
