The Amazing Things You'll Do in the 'Metaverse' & What It Will Take to Get There | Hacker News Reader

The Amazing Things You'll Do in the 'Metaverse' & What It Will Take to Get There

wsj.com

3 pointsbookofjoe8 comments

I wonder if this is just what it feels like to get old.

I have no interest whatsoever in using a metaverse, and I hope I never have to. Mainly I'm just curious if this is the way much older people feel about the internet and computers. Personally, I think computers and networked computers solved clear problems that we had, and gave new ways of doing things. Is that true for VR as well? It could be, but I don't see it.

One use case I can imagine is virtual classrooms where VR is used to provide a more immersive lecturing experience. Most of the technology for doing so already exists and Facebook (Facebook Reality Labs) I think is working on this and trying to commercialize it. That's why a lot of their recent research is about body tracking: https://ai.facebook.com/blog/hand-tracking-deep-neural-netwo.... I think they're working their way towards virtual and immersive office productivity tools but any technology that can be used in office settings can also be used in university lecture halls.

The “lecturing experience” for most lecture-exam format STEM courses is sitting on your tuchus/tuckus and watching the lecturer. How can that be made more meaningfully immersive than just sitting in a more comfortable chair and watching a video or streaming, which is proven tech? The occasional relevant question is usually more an annoying delay for the entire class than insightful, if the lecturer is at all competent.

Socratic method, dissections, labs with simulated better-than-cutting-edge equipment…maybe there’s some opportunities. The issue is this is second/third generation technology development/refinement (20+ years old from an R&D standpoint) and doesn’t have the sizzle of brand new stuff. It’s more of a slog than a sizzle.

Enhancements like sidebar information providing remedial-related material or AI-driven answers to typed questions, combined with video pausing might be pedagogical improvements but that’s hardly more immersive. Perhaps just better, but available with 10 year old tech. The technology may be outstripping the pedagogy…

My point is that VR combined with body tracking provides an immersive experience that is not possible otherwise. Classrooms are the obvious use cases but there are industrial and medical ones as well. The point is that there are plenty of use cases for remote presence technologies like VR but realizing those benefits is not easy so most applications are focused on entertainment.

You should look at Prisms of Reality, they are advancing core curriculum for STEM. So much potential for the double win of a better result (actual learning/retention) and a better experience (just >a more comfortable chair and watching a video).

[1] https://www.prismsvr.com/

It will be interesting to see where Gartner place the Metaverse on the Hype Cycle and track it going forward but there is no doubt it is already in the Amara's Law phase where we are overestimating the short term and underestimating the long term.

Yet, even overhyped as it may currently be, the actual short term impacts will still be significant. Real Time Edge Rendered Cloud Pixel Streaming, Digital Twins, AI/ML/ Computer Vision, and social platforms etc are the escape velocity needed to extend XR beyond the gaming community into ordinary personal and business interactions. In so many cases, Adding an interactive layer of 3D imaginative space can make the things we do better.

People who are in the space have experienced several false dawn episodes but the intersection of hardware capabilities and software use cases has never been so virtuous as they are now so strap in & hang on to your hats folks !

https://archive.ph/gEvOi

> We’ll also be able to mix virtual content with real-world video and interact virtually—for example, by pelting football players with virtual tomatoes. (The players won’t feel a thing.)

Hardly amazing IMO

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