Agreed, it is the Virtual reality and augmented reality technology we should be concentrating on rather than the facebook metaverse. The new VR/AR tech is the next step up from video and becomes 'immersive' where the user can drive the experience and become part of the story for themselves.
Just wanted to add a few other real world uses for 3D tech:
- Training - especially in highly complex, dangerous or relatively inaccessible locations. Pilot training, operation of cranes, defense force training comes to mind.
- Counselling remotely - (especially for those stuck at home with anxiety/depression) are being made more effective through the use of an avatar - it is said patients are more engaged and more willing to talk in the 3D environment rather than over zoom or skype.
- Education - It has always been the case that children learn more from 'doing it' than 'reading about it'. In a 3D world, they can explore the Great Barrier Reef or City of Pompeii and interact with local citizens (human or animal)
- Design & customisation - as previously discussed.
There is huge potential and application for VR outside of the gaming/social/entertainment context.
I agree. VR/AR has been a long promised technology, but I think it's time has finally arrived.
It's hard to appreciate until you've experienced it. Even a basic Oculus headset ($<500) provides an incredibly rich and immersive experience. As headsets become cheaper and more accessible, there'll be more apps developed, which will stimulate more demand and improvements in headsets and so on and so forth.
There's a potent feedback effect you see with most technology. Chris Dixon tweeted about this recently (in regard to blockchain tech, but it applies almost everywhere in computing)
Definitely doesn't mean you invest in any company that touts this kind of tech (i'm sure a majority will prove poor investments), but it's definitely an area to watch.
Metaverse - what a compelling concept, what a cool sounding word. And it is!
The concept of an immersive 3D experience is an amazing concept, and is one that already exists in many online games. But I believe the latest push is for its use in real world experiences where it probably will have a place in things such as social media, video conferencing, virtual meetings, remote collaboration, and the like. And Cisco’s WebEx already is an enterprise solution that helps achieve this.
Examples of immersive 3D experiences already exist, and we all have seen them. A 3D virtual walkthrough of a realestate property is a simple example, Google street view is another. It never ceases to amaze me how existing things are promoted as being new, and even wonderous, once they are assigned a catchy name. I expect the word “interactive” will need to be added to the definition of “metaverse” to distinguish it from these existing manifestations. Online gaming already satisfies that definition/distinction—3D, virtual, immersive, and interactive!
I expect lots of money will be made following these terms, as is/was the case with another term often abused as jargon—“The Cloud”.
My word of warning is to try and gain at least a rudimentary understanding of what metaverse means—enough to distinguish where it is used to actually, and realistically, promote a product from where it is used as jargon or as a buzzword. and that will become increasingly difficult as many try to jump on to this band-wagon.
I back away from any discourse promoting it metaverse as “the next generation of the internet” for instance. The Metaverse may very well be something on the internet, but it is NOT the next generation there of. It doesn’t change the way the internet works, merely how the internet can be used.