Although the far-reaching technological revolution offered by the metaverse is still many years away from being fully realized, there’s little doubting its potential. We’re also seeing a host of reality technology innovations spreading throughout a range of industries emerging as new adopters get to grips with this brave new frontier.
When it comes to realizing the scale of the metaverse, estimates surrounding the value of the market over the next 15 years generally range between $10 trillion and $30 trillion - prospective market caps that demonstrate the size of this technological innovation.
(Image: Grayscale)
According to its recent metaverse report, Grayscale stated that “the Metaverse is estimated to be a trillion-dollar revenue opportunity across advertising, social commerce, digital events, hardware, and developer/creator monetization.”
But what does this opportunity bring for industries? The vast potential of mixed reality technology can bring countless benefits to different sectors across the world. Let’s take a deeper look at some emerging examples today to better understand how they’re beginning to evolve:
How the Metaverse is Delivering Advancements in Healthcare
The age of the medical metaverse has already dawned. In 2020, neurosurgeons at John Hopkins University performed their first AR procedures on living patients - removing cancerous tumors and fusing vertebrae via reality technology.
During the surgeries, the surgeons wore headsets equipped with see-through eye displays that projected the interior of patients which are accurately rendered through CT scans.
The training processes of doctors and surgeons can also be further optimized through the metaverse and reality technology.
“In the metaverse, doctors and surgeons will be able to leverage the benefits of the connected ecosystem and gain expertise through the power of immersive collaboration,” Kuruvilla Matthew, chief innovation architect at UST, said in an interview with Verdict.
The ability for healthcare professionals to meet, collaborate, and share expertise in sprawling interconnected virtual spaces can help to raise the bar for healthcare quality around the world - with AR applications capable of enabling tutors to monitor surgeries and procedures all around the world and share feedback.
The metaverse will also help to bridge the gap in health inequality by improving accessibility and health literacy.
This can be achieved as virtual reality headsets become more affordable as the metaverse evolves - building the number of users accessing the digital ecosystem around the world. Subsequently, this level of access to an interconnected global online space will enable users to learn more about their health through immersive experiences designed to improve literacy on the matter.
Through extended reality, users may even be capable of observing the impact of poor health through limiting effects added to their avatars. This can help them to discover the relationship between unhealthy eating, obesity, and cardiovascular disease, for instance, by imposing limits on movement and responsiveness.
Entertainments and Events
The future of immersive entertainment and events is set to lean heavily on mixed reality also. We’re already seeing captivating events being hosted in the metaverse, and 2022’s MTV Video Music Awards sought to unleash much of the metaverse’s potential - attracting 3.9 million viewers in the process.
The awards show even launched a “Best Metaverse Performance” category in a significant step towards acknowledging the role that the metaverse will play in hosting events like concerts across virtual platforms. The award saw artists like Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber nominated whilst the prize was taken by K-Pop group Blackpink.
The MTV VMAs also saw hip-hop artists Snoop Dogg and Eminem perform digitally via technology provided by the Otherside metaverse platform in partnership with Yuga Labs. The pair performed a song as Bored Ape Yacht Club avatars fully virtually.
Whilst virtual concerts are already populating the metaverse, we’re also seeing other events like fashion shows gather momentum.
Using mixed reality technology, Meta has announced that it will be hosting a Queens of the Metaverse drag show, inspired by RuPail’s Drag Race.
Using three aspiring LGBTQ+, both VR and AR technology will be combined with digital avatars within Meta’s Horizon World’s Workroom to create eye-catching and dynamic outfits to be paraded on a metaverse catwalk.
“The metaverse will make our drag bigger and better. Even though the metaverse is in the early stages of development, the technologies behind it are already bringing exciting new ways for the drag community and LGBTQ+ creatives to express themselves and experiment,” said Blu Hydrangea, winner RuPaul’s Drag Race: UK vs. The World, who revealed the event. “I can only imagine how much further virtual reality would have taken my creativity when I was younger than hiding with bin-bags and sharpies in my bathroom.”
The beauty of the metaverse is that the technology has the potential to deliver more immersive experiences for many audience members at events - and in ways that may even be hard to replicate in the real world. Aspects like more ambitious effects, closer views of artists, and opportunities to interact with performers can all combine to make the metaverse a preferred place to experience live performances.
Immersive Training
Away from entertainment, MR technology and the metaverse are combining to improve training and maintenance within industries that have high margins for operator error.
Although major airlines have been using VR and AR technology for some years in training pilots, the metaverse can be a major help in ensuring the safety of aircraft. Facets of mixed reality like 3D scanning, sensors, and real-time insights upon aircraft inspection can help to maintain an unprecedented level of accuracy during pre-flight inspections.
Given that AR technology offers precise visuals of the aircraft, this can pave the way for the discovery of even the smallest dents and scratches that can be investigated further by the engineering team.
Elsewhere, leading metaverse-facing graphics company Nvidia has focused its efforts on delivering the ‘industrial metaverse’. This involves the construction of digital twins of factories, simulated rail networks, radio tower simulations, robot training in simulation, collaborations in 3D development, and a vast array of other use cases.
Using Nvidia’s ‘omniverse’, the Deutsche Bahn’s Digital Rail Germany (DSD) department is working on building a digital twin on a national scale of the entire German rail network. It’s hoped that the move will help to fully simulate automatic train operations throughout the country.
Through the development of a fully identical ‘digital twin’, DSD intends to leverage high performance perception, prevention, and intuitive management systems to act quickly when irregular events occur anywhere on the network.
Ultimately, this omniverse virtual replica could pave the way for a fully autonomous nationwide train network.
Although the metaverse is still many years away from having its full potential realized, it already stands as a trillion dollar opportunity for organizations to embrace. Given its emerging use cases in varied industries already, it’s fair to say that the growth of MR solutions in the metaverse is worth every business exploring.