The virtual world of "Metaverse" was strongly present at the Las Vegas Electronics Show "Consumer Electronic Show", which concluded Saturday with innovations presented by emerging companies aimed at building a virtual world in which human realities merge with those virtual and augmented.
The Spanish company Owo has created a jacket lined with sensors, allowing the wearer to feel hugs and even punches in virtual reality.
Its president, Jose Fuertes, asked, "What's the use of metaverses without feeling emotions? They'll just be digital tokens" (Avatars).
The tight-fitting jacket has straps that stick to the skin, with sensors linked to a mobile app. Before putting on the VR helmet, the user can choose the strength of each sensation, from the feeling of insect bites to the blood flowing from a gunshot wound.
"We want to give shape to the metaverse with a second layer of skin that adds a sense of touch in virtual worlds," says Fuertes.
The jacket, which will sell for less than $452 at the end of this year, recalls the novel "Ready Player One", which deals with humanity as it lives, plays and studies in a parallel virtual community thanks to tactile devices.
Such an outgrowth of sci-fi still seems a long way off, as bandwidth is still far too low in many parts of the world, including California, at least for video calls.
But Facebook, which recently adopted the name "Meta", gave an unprecedented impetus to the massive "Metaverse" project when its president, Mark Zuckerberg, said last year that this world was shaping the future of the Internet, and announced huge investments in it.
- Inevitable?- Several elements are needed to launch "Metaverse" on a large scale beyond the pockets found in video games such as "Roblox" and "Fortnite".
Glasses for this system should become comfortable and affordable, and immersion use cases should multiply.
There is also the question of interoperability that allows the transition from one virtual world to another, which is not yet possible.
"I'm a big fan of AR and VR but the equipment is not up to date," said Paddy Cosgrave, head of Web Summit, a European electronics fair. "I don't think anything exciting will happen for five to 10 years."
"Nothing can stop" metaverses, said Edu Segal, founder of Touchcast, a company specializing in effects and virtual reality.
On Wednesday, it launched a virtual reality collaboration platform between companies that can create email addresses ending in "dot metaverse", such as "dot com" ("com."). But their domains will be registered in a blockchain database, rather than on servers.
"In 1999, it was hard to believe that we would buy things online," Segal said. "Today we are witnessing a transition from the second generation of Web 2.0 to the third generation of Web 3.0 which is the decentralized Internet."
The pandemic has made virtual reality even more common, as in the last quarter of 2020, one million copies of the Quest 2 Doculus (Meta) headset were sold worldwide, according to Statista.
Cyborg Since the health restrictions began, Takuma Iwasa has been spending his weekends on VR Chat, a platform where digital avatars can create 3D worlds, spend time chatting and partying.
At the end of 2020, the young Japanese businessman decided to design a suitable equipment represented by sensors on the chest and legs to make the movements of digital characters more realistic, a case that gives a sense of temperature and a microphone that is separated from the real world.
In the spring, his startup Panasonic subsidiary Shiftol will introduce virtual reality glasses that are lighter, more advanced and more expensive than currently available models.
"In 'Ready Player One' they have jackets with all the integrated systems. But at the moment these jackets have to be worn separately, like 'cyborg''," Takuma laughed, showing off his digital character's dance moves on screen.
The Israeli startup, Wearable Devices, is working on a bracelet that captures electrical signals sent by the brain to the hand, where the user will be able to control connected objects with the touch of a finger.
This functionality could come in handy in the future if people use augmented reality glasses and need to control objects displayed on the lenses, without resorting to smartphones.
Marc Carrell-Pierre, Axantour's chief innovation officer, expected "a lot of absolutely crazy things to be tested, like the first planes and cars."
He believed that with the development of "Metaverse", society would face many risks, ranging from harassment to misinformation.
"It will be necessary to educate users about the risks, such as having someone display a 'fake reality' on your glasses," he added.