The Importance of the Metaverse Standards Forum

For most of us, the metaverse is mostly hype about the promise of a new internet that we can explore virtually. As it is currently implemented, the metaverse is reminiscent of the networked world before the Internet. It’s represented by a lot of very different and unique attempts to create what looks a lot like a walled garden approach, more like AOL and CompuServe than the post-Netscape Internet we enjoy today.

The implementations range from useful — like those using Nvidia’s Omniverse — to promises of “something” from Meta (formerly known as Facebook) that, at least now, usually disappoints. Admittedly, disappointment is probably due to expectations that are too high than any slack by Meta. This is often a problem with new technologies where expectations are exceeded and people are not impressed with the result.

Now, with last week’s announcement of the Metaverse Standards ForumIt appears that the industry is addressing one of the biggest problems with the metaverse, which is the lack of interoperability and internet-like standards that could allow for a much more seamless future metaverse.

This week, let’s talk about how important this movement is. Then we close with my product of the week, a mobile solar solution that could help avoid the environmental and power outages that states like California and Texas are expected to experience as climate change makes their electricity grids less reliable.

The current metaverse

Right now the metaverse is not so much one thing as it is a lot of things.

The most advanced version of the metaverse today is Nvidia’s Omniverse. This tool is used to design buildings, train autonomous robots (including autonomous cars) and forms the basis of Earth-2, which is designed to better simulate and predict the weather – as well as provide earlier reports of major weather events. as to design possible solutions to global climate change.

While many seem to think the metaverse will grow to replace the internet, I doubt it can or will. The internet organizes information relatively efficiently. Moving to a VR interface from a test interface can slow down the data access process without providing a compensatory benefit.

The metaverse is best for simulation, emulation, and specifically for tasks where using a virtual environment and machine speeds can solve critical problems faster and more accurately than existing alternatives. It is already proving itself valuable for those tasks. While it will likely evolve into something more akin to the Holodeck in “Star Trek” or the virtual world portrayed in the movie “The Matrix,” it’s not there yet.

What else is needed

What we can do now is create photo-realistic images that can be explored virtually. But what we can’t do is create a realistic digital twin of humans to populate the metaverse. We can’t yet instrument the human body so you can experience the metaverse as if it were real, and our primary interface, VR glasses, are big and heavy, making the 3D glasses the market had previously rejected look much better. in contrast .

These problems are not cheap or easy to solve. If they had to be solved uniquely for each of the metaverse instances, the evolution of the metaverse and our experiences in it would be set back years, if not decades.

What it takes is the level of collaboration and collaboration that the Internet has created to focus now on creating the metaverse, which is exactly what may have happened last week.

Acclaimed Founding Members

The creation of the Metaverse Standards Forum addresses this issue of interoperability and standards directly.

Both Meta and Nvidia are on this forum, which is made up of a Who’s Who of tech companies – except for Apple, a company that usually wants to go it alone. Heavy hitters like Microsoft, Adobe, Alibaba, Huawei, Qualcomm and Sony are taking part, along with Epic Games (the metaverse promises a future where you could game in the digital twin of your home, school or office).

Existing standard groups, including the Spatial Web Foundation, Web3D Consortium, and World Wide Web Consortium, have all joined as well.

Presented by Khronos groupMSF membership is free and open to any organization, so keep an eye out for companies from different sectors to sign up. The forum meetings are expected to begin next month.

This effort should significantly increase the rate of progress for the metaverse and make it much more useful for more things; going well beyond what Nvidia is successfully using it for today and reaching a future where we can use it for everything from entertainment and gaming to creating our digital twins and the potential for digital immortality.

Wrapping Up: The Metaverse Is Growing Up

I expect that the creation of the Metaverse Standards Forum will greatly accelerate the evolution of the metaverse and lead to a common concept that can work together between providers.

While I don’t believe that the Internet will ever replace it, I do believe that it can grow into an experience that, over time, we can largely live and play, and potentially enrich those lives significantly.

I imagine virtual vacations, more engaging remote meetings, and video games that are more realistic than ever before, all because of an effort to collaborate better and set standards that will benefit the entire mixed reality market.

The metaverse is coming and thanks to the Metaverse Standards Forum it will arrive faster and be better than it could have been.

Sesame Solar Nanogrid

Those of us living in states where power has become unreliable due to global warming and poorly planned power grids are expected to have serious problems when it comes to extreme weather.

Companies and institutions have generator backups, but gas and diesel shortages are increasing. So not only are these generators likely to be unreliable if used for extended periods of time, they are anything but green and will exacerbate the climate change problem they are supposed to mitigate.

Sesame Solar Energy has an institutional solution to this problem, a large solar generating trailer that also has a hydrogen fuel cell to generate power at night or on cloudy days.

The trailer can also process and filter water locally, which could relieve residents from weather- or crisis-related water shortages.

Sesame Solar seems to solve power outages much better without producing greenhouse gases that would exacerbate the problem. This makes the Sesame Solar Nanogrid my product of the week.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ECT News Network.