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Attendees wear VR headsets while previewing the Caliverse Hyper-Realistic Metaverse experience at the Lotte booth during the CES tech show, Jan. 6, 2023, in Las Vegas. |
Is the metaverse closer than we think?
It depends on whom you ask at CES, where companies are
showing off innovations that could immerse us deeper into virtual reality,
otherwise known as VR.
The metaverse — essentially a buzzword for three-dimensional
virtual communities where people can meet, work and play — was a key theme
during the four-day tech gathering in Las Vegas that ends Sunday.
Taiwanese tech giant HTC unveiled a high-end VR headset that
aims to compete with market leader Meta, and a slew of other companies and
startups touted augmented reality glasses and sensory technologies that can
help users feel — and even smell — in a virtual environment.
Among them, Vermont-based OVR Technology showcased a headset
containing a cartridge with eight primary aromas that can be combined to create
different scents. It's scheduled to be released later this year.
An earlier, business-focused version used primarily for
marketing fragrances and beauty products is integrated into VR goggles and
allows users to smell anything from a romantic bed of roses to a marshmallow
roasting over a fire at a campsite.
The company says it aims to help consumers relax and is
marketing the product, which comes with an app, as a sort of digital spa mixed
with Instagram.
“We are entering an era in which extended reality will drive
commerce, entertainment, education, social connection, and wellbeing,” the
company’s CEO and co-founder Aaron Wisniewski said in a statement. “The quality
of these experiences will be measured by how immersive and emotionally engaging
they are. Scent imbues them with an unmatched power.”
But more robust and immersive uses of scent — and its close
cousin, taste — are still further away on the innovation spectrum. Experts say
even VR technologies that are more accessible are in the early days of their
development and too expensive for many consumers to purchase.
The numbers show there's waning interest. According to the
research firm NPD Group, sales of VR headsets, which found popular use in
gaming, declined by 2% last year, a sour note for companies betting big on more
adoption.
Still, big companies like Microsoft and Meta are investing
billions. And many others are joining the race to grab some market share in
supporting technologies, including wearables that replicate touch.
Customers, though, aren't always impressed by what they
find. Ozan Ozaskinli, a tech consultant who traveled more than 29 hours from
Istanbul to attend CES, suited up with yellow gloves and a black vest to test
out a so-called haptics product, which relays sensations through buzzes and
vibrations and stimulates our sense of touch.
Ozaskinli was attempting to punch in a code on a keypad that
allowed him to pull a lever and unlock a box containing a shiny gemstone. But
the experience was mostly a letdown.
“I think that’s far from reality right now,” Ozaskinli said.
“But if I was considering it to replace Zoom meetings, why not? At least you
can feel something.”
Proponents say widespread adoption of virtual reality will
ultimately benefit different parts of society by essentially unlocking the
ability to be with anyone, anywhere at any time. Though it's too early to know
what these technologies can do once they fully mature, companies looking to
achieve the most immersive experiences for users are welcoming them with open
arms.
Aurora Townsend, the chief marketing officer at Flare, a
company slated to launch a VR dating app called Planet Theta next month, said
her team is building its app to incorporate more sensations like touch once the
technology becomes more widely available on the consumer market.
“Being able to feel the ground when you’re walking with your
partner, or holding their hands while you’re doing that… subtle ways we engage
people will change once haptic technology is fully immersive in VR,” Townsend
said.
Still, it's unlikely that many of these products will become
widely used in the next few years, even in gaming, said Matthew Ball, a
metaverse expert. Instead, he said the pioneers of adoption are likely to be
fields that have higher budgets and more precise needs, such as bomb units
using haptics and virtual reality to help with their work and others in the
medical field.
In 2021, Johns Hopkins neurosurgeons said they used augmented
reality to perform spinal fusion surgery and remove a cancerous tumor from a
patient’s spine.
And optical technology from Lumus, an Israeli company that
makes AR glasses, is already being used by underwater welders, fighter pilots
and surgeons who want to monitor a patient’s vital signs or MRI scans during a
procedure without having to look up at several screens, said David Goldman,
vice president of marketing for the company.
Meanwhile, Xander, a Boston-based startup which makes smart
glasses that display real-time captions of in-person conversations for people
with hearing loss, will launch a pilot program with the U.S. Department of
Veterans Affairs next month to test out some of its technology, said Alex
Westner, the company’s co-founder and CEO.
He said the agency will allow veterans who have appointments
for hearing loss or other audio issues to try out the glasses in some of their
clinics. And if it goes well, the agency would likely become a customer,
Westner said.
Elsewhere, big companies from Walmart to Nike have been
launching different initiatives in virtual reality. But it's not clear how much
they can benefit during the early stages of the technology. The consulting firm
McKinsey says the metaverse could generate up to $5 trillion by 2030. But
outside of gaming, much of today’s VR use remains somewhat of a marginal
amusement, said Michael Kleeman, a tech strategist and visiting scholar at the
University of California San Diego.
“When people are promoting this, what they have to answer is — where’s the value in this? Where’s the profit? Not what’s fun, what’s cute and what’s interesting.”