For the metaverse construction tests pending technological maturity

Listen to the audio version of the article

The metaverse doesn’t exist yet, but it is under construction. A year and a half after the rebranding of Facebook in Meta, the hype has waned, replaced by that on generative artificial intelligences. Demonstrating the unattainability of the project, for some, and the normal transition path towards a new technological paradigm, for others. Reaching the metaverse, i.e. the complete convergence between physical and digital, will in any case require the maturation of various technologies still under development: augmented reality and virtual reality (which together form theextended reality), artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and blockchain, enabled by a network superior to 5G. Current forecasts range between 2028 (Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies) and 2030 (Gartner).

«We tend to associate the metaverse only with virtual reality but it is a much broader phenomenon, which requires a systemic approach – explains Marta Valsecchi, co-director of the Augmented Reality & Metaverse Observatory of the Milan Polytechnic -. In this immersive ecosystem, citizens will have to find simplicity of access and use and valuable services but also appropriate protection of their rights, developer companies are called to build sustainable models, institutions to play a regulatory role”. The Observatory presents two specific mappings, which concern the 231 projects of extended reality (Xr) made in Italy and the 445 international projects activated on the 212 virtual worlds existing today. Starting from 2020, also under the pressure of the pandemic, 126 projects aimed at the consumer and 105 at other companies or internal personnel have been communicated in Italy. In the B2C sphere, the sectors most affected are tourism & art (34% of the total) and retail (25%): through proprietary smartphones and tablets (49%) or supplied viewers (30%), interactive contents were used, virtual visits, additional information on the products to be purchased.

In the B2B/B2E sector, industrial production (34%) and healthcare (23%) together cover more than half of the projects: the focus on remote maintenance, quality control in production, virtual simulation in intervention planning surgical procedures involves a prevalence of use of smart glasses (41%) and visors (30%) supplied. Just over half of the projects are developed by large companies, the remainder by organizations and SMEs. «A growing awareness of companies has emerged on the benefits obtained from XR projects, in terms of increased revenues or decreased costs, depending on the type of project» comments Valsecchi. Conversely, among the 445 international projects in virtual worlds, developed mainly in retail (37%) andentertainment (27%), the same strategic approach is not noted but mainly communication and marketing objectives.

Among the 212 virtual worlds analysed, 54% already have the distinctive characteristics of the metaverse, including elements of interoperability, i.e. connection with other virtual worlds, which for the user means, for example, being able to move from one platform to another without change profile or avatar. Interoperability is one of the fundamental conditions for the realization of the metaverse: less than a year ago, the Metaverse Standard Forum was born to find consensus on protocols. «The interoperability elements that we have identified are today mainly based on blockchain or on the use of NFT, therefore on a decentralized logic – explains Valeria Portale, co-director of the Observatory -. In the future, there may also be agreements one to one or public records shared by all virtual worlds.

The choice is not trivial: depending on whether the metaverse is made up of open or proprietary protocols, there will be direct consequences on the management of people’s data, including biometrics. The Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies has distinguished four possible scenarios: from a metaverse open source completely decentralized to the monopoly of a single proprietary platform (Zuckerberg’s dream?) passing through a “Nerdverse” open source used only for experimentation and for many platforms that are not very interoperable and managed by a few companies. Which metaverse we will inhabit is the responsibility of each of us.