6 improvements in the metaverse that will blow your mind

This is how the metaverse is constantly reinventing and improving itself - all the while by making a difference in your life.

1. In automobile training and manufacturing, manufacturers such as BMW create virtual reality digital twins in their factories to make manufacturing processes more streamlined and efficient. Using digital twins, companies can have access to even the most obscure data and factor it into their plans for manufacturing. This ensures that cars are delivered to your dealership faster, and even contributes to lowering costs of manufacture through efficient workflows which save money.

On the training side of things, technicians and attendants can train using virtual reality programmes which can be customised, scaled up, and deployed at the drop of a hat. These programmes also cost less money and can additionally be made with cross-device functionality.

2. Metaverse companies are also evolving to include airlines by developing metaverse solutions for chatbots and virtual assistants. These will be VR/AR-powered assistants which customers and travelers can use to order in-flight meals, or buy products at airport shops. These assistants would act as centralised touchpoints uniting airports and airlines around the customer. For example, Qatar Airways’ VR experience features a ‘meta-human’ cabin crew guide called ‘Sama’ who guides users through the check-in process and walks them through the plane.

The metaverse is also powering AR guides to help travelers navigate airports and cities which will help users navigate through complicated indoor spaces and find what they need quickly.

3. In the oil and gas industry, the metaverse is mostly used for maintenance, where internal structures of large machinery are visualised using XR technology, and data is gathered via IoT devices and processed with the help of AI. This makes it possible for engineers to do live maintenance and conduct repairs or troubleshoot any problems in real-time.

This interconnected feedback loop of visualisation and large-scale data collection leads to faster diagnostics via integrated analysis of sensors.

4. It’s evident that the social component is missing from all the online retail experiences that are popular today. DIY metaverse creators like MetaQube can enable the collaborative, social aspect of retail - via omnichannel messaging and actually seeing avatars of shoppers walking around - which is a crucial component of shopping. E-commerce as an industry will only balloon more as a by-product of the needs of COVID, and the rise of the metaverse will push everyday retail into new, lucrative spaces. We have the famous D&G virtual auction as an example here. An immersive experience - while it may be a little heavy on bandwidth - provides the customer with an experience of strolling through neighborhood shops. And more importantly, it provides the shop owner an opportunity to showcase their goods effectively while maintaining a level of trust at par with physical shopping.

5. The metaverse is also constantly being developed for the supply chain management. In metaverse-based inventory management warehouses and storage facilities can be optimized via virtual run-throughs of stock storage, and seamless data integration means any employee can search for products in a network of warehouses and bring up any information he needs about them (date of manufacture, origin, composition, etc.) in real-time and service orders as they come in.

There also is the benefit of quality management and inspection powered by AR and VR wherein experts across the world will be able to access products and services through the metaverse to make sure everything is up to specification.

6. For many museums, a major concern with XR technologies is that viewers will not be adequately able to interact with the works displayed or with other visitors. But organisers at the Perez Art Museum, Miami, found that viewers collaborated with each other while using their AR tech to experience the museum’s offerings. The organisers also observed that older visitors, contrary to expectations, enjoyed their experience using AR tech. The novelty of the technology and its flexibility in designing surprising experiences increase the likelihood that visitors will be more engaged by what the museum has to offer.

In one of our projects, a virtual exhibit for Ojas Art Gallery in India, we ensured that the space was embedded with videos, images, and texts to ensure engagement. And just like in the real world, visitors to our virtual art space could walk up to a painting and see it up close. Visitors could additionally chat with each other, fill in enquiry forms, and glance at the events catalog in a flash. Our event was live for 30 days without crashing, attracting nearly 40 thousand visitors across 23 countries.

Authored By: Anshul Agarwal, Founder & Director, XR Central.