Glad you popped by to learn why a 3D technology company that is Training, Wearing, and Populating the Metaverse is an enthusiastic long-term sponsor of the Budleigh Literary Festival. The Budleigh Literary Festival is about supporting community and exchanging ideas. It is an annual experience steeped within the Budleigh Salterton community where like-minded book loving people come together to listen to authors talk about their books and join stimulating discussions with others. Physical location is a determining factor in who will be able to participate, whether participants will be from the local community or visitors from further afield drawn by the authors. For five days all participants will be able to immerse themselves in an enlightened, friendly, inclusive space promoting the love of literature. As with any immersive event there will be a sense of anticlimax once it finishes, and we return to our daily lives.
It is our belief that one day these seemingly diverse worlds (a literary festival and the Metaverse) will converge to cultivate the celebration of literature in a more socially inclusive community.
What is the Metaverse? From a baseline standpoint, Metaverse is a term currently being used by industry to describe the next phase of the internet – Web 3.0. In contrast to Web 1.0, which provided the internet connection, and Web 2.0, which provided mobility, e-commerce, and social media, Web 3.0 (or the Metaverse) is set to provide the interactive 3D experience layer of the internet. This interactive experience can be 100% virtual, where you physically wear a headset and exist as an avatar in an artificial digital environment that completely replaces the real world (Virtual Reality/VR). Alternatively, this interactive experience can be virtual content layered on top of the real world, where you physically use a smartphone, smart glasses, or headset and exist as yourself in the real world interacting with virtual content (Augmented Reality/AR).
The term ‘Metaverse’ was a literary invention. William Gibson’s 1984 novel ‘Neuromancer’ solidified a new sub-genre of science fiction known as Cyberpunk where generally downbeat characters inhabit a virtual technology world called ‘Cyberspace’. The first use of the word Metaverse was the 1992 science fiction novel ‘Snow Crash’ by Neil Stevenson. Stevenson creates a not-so-distant future where each person co-exists in his/her physical form in the real world and in his/her virtual avatar form in the Metaverse. The recent rise to popularity can be attributed to Facebook seizing the shortened Meta name as a brand to position itself as an influencer and future leader in the Metaverse.
The Promise of the Metaverse. This next phase holds the potential to unleash human creativity to use technology in profound ways to express ourselves and engage with communities in new ways. In this instance, a Literary Festival could be a hybrid model for those in attendance and accessible to like-minded book loving people everywhere regardless of location, health status, or disability. Additionally, once the festival has completed, a Metaverse can provide continuity for the interactions and dialogues which started during the festival with others, including the authors themselves. The Metaverse provides the opportunity to make communities global and persistent whether for enlightenment, work, or entertainment purposes.
Being Pioneered by Industry. Many people automatically assume that the Metaverse is a gaming platform, so if you do not play games it will not affect you. However, this perception is misleading as industry is heavily financing the advancement of the Metaverse as they are achieving huge labour efficiencies, realizing cost savings, and, in some instances, promoting employee safety. Imagine a maintenance worker in a Peruvian mine being visually coached through a critical repair with an up-to-date AR program provided by the manufacturer, which could be thousands of miles away. In contrast, the maintenance worker traditionally would consult a user manual, which might be out of date, or wait for the manufacturer’s expert to come on time zone to walk through the repair. In this instance not only are there cost implications to downtime, but there could also be implications to worker or community safety. Moreover, hospitals have been using image-guided surgery systems for years to improve patient outcomes and alleviate risk. The underlying technologies, which the Metaverse will deploy, are already multi-billion-dollar industries.
3dMD… Training, Wearing, and Populating the Metaverse. Today there is one rather important component missing from the current Metaverse – realistic looking 3D people… aka realistic looking avatars… moving through the Metaverse and interacting with one another. ‘Avatar’ is another word that has been popularised in literature through the years. Daśāvatāra is a Sanskrit word referring to the Hindu God Vishnu’s ten primary incarnations, or avatars, that descend upon earth.
Within a computing context, an avatar can be defined as a digital incarnation of a person in which said person manipulates within a digital environment, whether it is a game or the Metaverse. As the digital embodiment of a personification concept, a person’s avatar can be as simple as an animated character or as sophisticated as a ‘digital doppelganger’ representing all the physical characteristics of the person. Imagine a world where your doppelganger avatar can move freely and communicate in a digital world – virtually trying on clothes with your exact physical body type and having stylish clothes that actually fit show up on your doorstep. Your doppelganger avatar could participate in an industry conference (or literary festival) happening halfway around the world! The possibilities could be endless.
With a 20-year proven track record in the clinical sector, this is 3dMD’s area of expertise for the Metaverse – imaging humans in motion in 3D to help our customers teach computers about people (actions, mannerisms, subtle gestures, daily routines, etc.); design wearable tech products that actually fit and are comfortable; and create enrolment avatars to build communities.
Quick Reality Check. The next phase of the internet Web 3.0/Metaverse is going to take a while. Reaching a totally seamless immersion across the Metaverse platforms (as represented in the Matrix movie tetralogy) is an immense technology undertaking and an enormous social policy challenge. It has been approximately 40 years since the establishment of Web 1.0. In the short to medium term, we believe Web 3.0 will continue to evolve as the internet has to date but we will start to see an emergence of private metaverses with tight controls for entry and social rules for participation. We also suspect that it will by branded in many ways by the tech sector.
International Standards. In the long term there are opportunities to avoid the user privacy and data security mistakes that have blighted Web 2.0. This opportunity represents another area of active participation by 3dMD and its founders in the domain of promoting future international standards around the use of 3D data.
Kelly Duncan, Co-founder, 3dMD
Opinions expressed in this post are solely the author’s and do not reflect a statement of direction or policy by 3dMD Ltd or the Budleigh Literary Festival.