The Metaverse tends to ebb and flow between absurdity and hype. It's getting a lot of attention since it's being billed as the next step in the internet's spatial development, allowing us to explore experiences alongside information.
It also seems a bit outlandish to some people because, when read aloud, it sounds like Asimov-Esque fiction that veers into fantastical territory. We have ideas about how the Metaverse will emerge, but there is a huge amount of white noise and rubbish beyond these insights.
The same noise causes consternation. Since there is no common definition, experts might interpret its hazy contours to match their story. The social specialists predict that "the Metaverse will be sociable."
"The Metaverse will be fantastic for training," say specialists in the training field.
All of this may be true, like parallel lines on a highway, but none of these scenarios capture the full magnitude and promise of the next spatial computing platform.
What the dialogue lacks is a feeling of solid reality on which to base all of our talks. A solid foundation on which we may argue and investigate, standing tall on the terra firma of common reason. In this case, augmented reality (AR) has the potential to thrive as a Metaverse doorway.
But first, let's take a step back. When we talk about this, we tend to lump together the different threads of augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and smart glasses – and treat them all as one.
The ambiguity is reasonable; the large canopy of immersive technologies may embrace a wide range of technology advances, but the broad strokes can be misleading for a true Metaverse conversation.
When deciding which of these functions as a gateway, we must ask ourselves one question: which is the most convenient to use? Which of them has the frictionless experience of a smartphone, where the boundaries are so low that anybody can walk over them and into a new world without difficulty?
AR is the most suited doorway for consuming material out of the three. Anyone may dive into a portable gadget, scan a code, and be instantly engulfed in a personalized experience.
One good example is augmented reality platform OVER (formerly OVR) who have recently launched a new NFT collection. OVER worked with Swedish soccer player Zlatan Ibrahimovic to deliver 11 NFTs to the OVER platform, inspired by Ibrahimovic's book "Adrenaline. My Untold Stories."
The 11 NFTs inspired by parts of Zlatan Ibrahimovic's latest best-seller were made accessible on the overthereality.ai metaverse. The artworks will be auctioned off on the Nifty Gateway marketplace, an online digital art auction platform for non-fungible tokens, between March 22nd and April 19th.
The simplicity of use is significantly superior to a VR headset, which may take hours to set up, and smart glasses, which will almost certainly be too pricey for general appeal in the future.
The Metaverse's entrance should be broad and friendly, enabling many people to enter the new world. Take, for example, the use of augmented reality in the wildly succesfull Pokemon Go. By presenting interactive AR tasks that interest the user, the game kept players engaed and emmersed in the mobile app.
Take the same ideas and apply them to a Metaverse. Companies may take control of the virtual area and further engage their pupils in their world by competing or exploring other aspects of the brand's narrative.
AR already offers advantages over other forms of technology in terms of dwell time and engagement; with an immersive Metaverse, these advantages become much more significant. Views will be significantly less important than key KPIs like dwell time and engagement.
While hypothetical, augmented reality (AR) is a great contender for serving as a Metaverse gateway since it outperforms other technologies in terms of engagement and accessibility.
A free and open Metaverse must be constructed on concepts that enable everyone to use it without incurring expensive hardware expenses. AR is the most promising future contender of all the current immersive technologies. But for now, let's work together to create it and see how far we can go.