The real metaverse will be a mixed reality where virtual content is combined with the physical world, expanding and embellishing daily life.
As we kick off a new year, the public is still largely confused by one of the biggest buzzwords of last year: The metaverse. After being promised a society-changing technology by breathless media influencers, what many people actually encountered was either (a) cartoonish virtual worlds filled with creepy avatars or (b) opportunistic platforms selling “virtual real estate” through questionable NFT schemes.
To say the industry overpromised and underwhelmed in 2022 would be an understatement.
Fortunately, the metaverse really does have the potential to be a society-changing technology. But to get there, we need to push past today’s cartoonish worlds and deploy immersive experiences that are deeply realistic, wildly artistic, and focus far more on unleashing creativity and productivity than on minting NFT landlords. In addition, the industry needs to overcome one of the biggest misconceptions about the metaverse: The flawed notion that we will live our daily lives in virtual worlds that will replace our physical surroundings. This is not how the metaverse will unfold.
Don’t get me wrong, there will be popular metaverse platforms that are fully simulated worlds, but these will be temporary “escapes” that users sink into for a few hours at a time, similar to how we watch movies or play video games today. On the other hand, the real metaverse, the one that will impact our days from the moment we wake to the moment we go to sleep, will not remove us from our physical surroundings.
Instead, the real metaverse will mostly be a mixed reality (MR) in which immersive virtual content is seamlessly combined with the physical world, expanding and embellishing our daily lives with the power and flexibility of digital content.
I know there are some who will push back on this prediction, but 2023 will prove them wrong. That’s because a new wave of products is headed our way that will bring the magic of MR to mainstream markets.
The first step in this direction was the recent release of the Meta Quest Pro which is hardware-ready for quality mixed reality with color passthrough cameras that capture the real world and can combine it with spatially registered virtual content. It’s an impressive device, but so far there is little software available that showcases its mixed reality capabilities in useful and compelling ways. That said, we can expect the real potential to be unleashed during 2023 as software rolls out.
Also, in 2023, HTC is scheduled to release a headset that looks to be even more powerful than the Meta Quest Pro for mixed-reality experiences. To be unveiled at CES in January, it reportedly has color passthrough cameras of such high fidelity you can look at a real-world phone in your hand and read text messages in mixed reality. Whether consumers prefer HTC’s new hardware or Meta’s, one thing is clear: An MR arms race is underway, and it’s about to get more crowded.
That’s because Apple is expected to launch its own MR headset in 2023. Rumored to be a premium device that ships midyear, it will likely be the most powerful mixed reality product the world has seen. There are claims it will feature quality passthrough cameras along with LiDAR sensors for profiling distances in the real world.
