JUST A THOUGHT

There’s been a lot of noise in the media surrounding the subject of NFTs (non-fungible tokens). In many ways there’s more of a focus on NFTs than the wider umbrella of the metaverse, which is about so much more than images, songs, games and videos...

Are you meta-curious?

Businesses are conquering virtual worlds, it’s time Cornwall joined the party, says Brian Waterfield, director of Falmouth University’s Immersive Business Lab.

You may be somewhat familiar with the term ‘Meta’ if you’ve watched the news in the last couple of months. Facebook has rebranded their parent company to better align with their future goals, focusing on the possibilities of a “Metaverse’, a 3D internet of sorts where Zuckerberg says it will be possible to “teleport instantly as a hologram to be at the office without a commute, at a concert with friends, or in your parents’ living room to catch up...”

While understanding of the metaverse and use of extended reality is growing across the UK– it’s fair to say that here in the south west we could be doing more to capitalise on these emerging fields.

In the next few years, the metaverse will become as ubiquitous as ‘digital transformation’ for businesses and local authorities. It’s no longer an elective choice to create digital solutions, the market is already expecting it and it’s essential for businesses’ growth and innovation to keep improving their offer.

I’ve seen some great advances from some excellent companies, start-ups and established players here in Cornwall. There is absolutely a thirst for change and progress. We’re not starting from the bottom of the ladder, but there is a lot of catching up to do. Ask a UK leader what’s happening in the south west and they may say “Well, great things are happening in Bristol and Exeter...”.

Looking at the road ahead, we’re dedicated to providing opportunities for local businesses to get on board with it and open up new possibilities.

Immersive technologies – augmented and virtual realities – offer new ways to save time, create efficiencies, explore new products and services, maximise resource and meet training needs. For example, the automotive and aerospace industries now use immersive technologies throughout their product development and decision-making processes. Having the ability to visualise the product early in the creation process has given designers and engineers a powerful tool, failure mode analysis and decision making into simulation and virtual, reducing costs, significantly improving quality and meeting the needs of customers.

The use of similar technologies is also becoming the norm in the healthcare and medical training fields, with health authorities in the UK now using simulation and immersive technology to train and maintain standards and stage simulated surgical procedures. This is resulting in a shortened passage of time to introduce drugs and medicine to the market and has vastly simplified the process of surgical procedures. The Royal Shakespeare company, the Royal Theatre and Royal College of Art have all invested considerably into immersive technology and are creating a new way to engage and experience via 3D immersive sound, visuals and motion capture. Here in Cornwall, we’re already witnessing the interface of raw creative talent with cutting edge

If social media has tech. Through the university and

“opened up the our partners, we’re building a conversation”, the metaverse opens up and democratises the entire foundation for more competitive creative entrepreneurship and creative tech ability to service the future marketplace. creation and involvement process, away from a transmit and consume Travel and hospitality have been severely impacted by the pandemic. But new model and towards a technologies can be part of the deeper, more immersive recovery. It’s been great to see and responsive interface Cornwall Musuems Partnership between customers, consumers and and Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly LEP embrace the use of immersive tech through the companies WaVE project in partnership with Falmouth University, which fostered the use of Virtual, Augmented and Immersive technologies to help bring our best heritage and tourism sites to life and taking our tourism industry into the future. Falmouth University’s Immersive Business Lab is also working closely with Cornish company Glas Twin, who are revolutionising the concept of immersive sound-based experiences that can aid trauma recovery, fight the epidemic of stress in our emergency services and healthcare settings and help individuals strengthen their wellbeing and overall health. There’s strong evidence demonstrating that these immersive technologies have an incredible influence over the way we respond to and cope with stress, how we process our trauma and recall our memories. We’re only just getting started and seeing the tip of the iceberg in terms of ways this technology can benefit our communities, education and healthcare settings. I for one, can’t wait to see how our creative and entrepreneurial talent here in Cornwall will make it their own. By focusing too much on the latest media controversies around the latest NFT scandal or crypto boom, we risk missing out on the bigger picture – that is, the un-mined landscapes on offer for businesses through virtual metaverses. The metaverse is no passing fad. It is already happening and is here to stay. So...are you ‘meta curious’ yet?

The construction, architecture and civil engineering industries have immersive technology and digital process embedded into their work. Larger construction firms and architectural firms know that giving clients an immersive experience of what is possible can make the difference to winning a tender or not. The technology has filtered down to smaller construction firms, where augmented reality is now being used to layout tasks by overlaying data on site.

Across the globe, big brands like Nike,

Roblox, Balenciaga, Gucci, Coke and

Sotheby’s are building immersive and responsive worlds to engage their customers with their brands via the metaverse – an exciting and bold way of virtually exploring a new world with a sense of your own presence.