Lisa Laxton, Founder, and CEO at Infinite Metaverse Alliance LLC, shares her experience and insights about the challenges and future of Metaverse & immersive technologies.
To The Verge had an exciting opportunity to hold an interactive meeting with Lisa Laxton, founder, and CEO of Infinite Metaverse Alliance LLC, in her platform DreamGate. The entrepreneur shared her work with immersive technologies and her thoughts on designing immersive virtual 3D screens.
The company ” Infinite Metaverse Alliance LLC ” is focused on emerging technologies. The company provides the best value solutions in engineering, programming, analytical research, and technical services for businesses, consumers, and government agencies.
What is Infinite Metaverse Alliance LLC all about?
Lisa shared that “Infinite Metaverse Alliance” is a research and development philanthropic foundation formed in response to open source community needs for maximizing societal benefits. Their core mission focuses on inclusive “design thinking” to advance virtual worlds, virtual reality, and synthetic environments. Here, they make the most of virtual worlds to meet user needs and to push the technology to meet the future as it unfolds.
In essence, “Infinite Metaverse Alliance” is a new kind of community organization with a hybrid structure that is both aspirational and innovative. The venture aims to maximize excellence using design thinking – taking what is good and making it great! They will be redefining world-class using collaborative virtual worlds through their collective efforts.
“What we do here is extensive research. First, we listen to our users and understand what they actually want. Then, we put our efforts into developing a more acceptable software that people like. Here we are focused on helping everyone and making it easy to assess for the new people who have never been into the Metaverse and making the Metaverse experience a simple and memorable one”.
Challenges In Designing Immersive Virtual 3D Environments
Lisa stated that we could design virtual environments in multiple ways. The key to creating content in the virtual world is understanding your customer’s needs. Do they need a mirror environment, or do they need something engaging and creative? It is according to the user’s actual wants.
“When you are creating a virtual environment, then in every visual cue that happens in the scene, it is essential that you put your own IQ into it. For example, if a bird flies by, make sure the bird is making a sound or visible to the eyes. We need to follow the designing for accessibility approach because you don’t know what your users need, some might not see well, and some might have hearing issues”.
“When creating a virtual environment, you need to understand your technical needs in terms of how many users will be concurrent in the virtual environment, or how many are logged in at the same time. This is important since every platform has some limitations in terms of concurrent Avatars”.
According to Lisa, another essential thing in creating a virtual environment is that there should be a space where users can customize their avatars with different clothes, shoes, hairstyles, skin color, etc. So, this is the most important thing to keep in mind: constantly think about the users’ needs when designing your 3D environment.
How Can The Metaverse Experience Become More Immersive In The Future?
Lisa shared, “Metaverse Experience in the future is going to be very interesting. However, the biggest problem right now is interoperability. For example, let’s say someone is unreal, someone is on unity, and there are specific cryptos that you want to engage in. Then this is going to be a big problem since people have to make different accounts on all these platforms individually to access them. So, we have a notion of a decentralized protocol that allows you to move from one world to another or one grid to another.”
As per Lisa, Metaverse is a collection of different virtual universes or galaxies. The problem is that we cannot jump from one world to another, but it could be possible with the help of an open-source platform, where over 8000 grids are running every time. This type of software has its own unique backend and architecture. By enabling this decentralized protocol for the grid, the avatar can jump or teleport from this grid to another. This decentralized protocol is also known as Hypergrid.
“With the help of this protocol, the avatars can come from the home grid or local avatar account and enter a specific address in the world map. So that provides interoperability of the avatar travel, movement of content, and exchange content across multiple amounts of grids rather than one grid. And this is what is actually needed!”
“We do have interoperability of the content, but that is not with every platform. Each has its own skeleton for the avatar, which is associated with the avatar’s animation. So, for example, the skeleton of one platform does not support the skeleton of another platform. This is a big problem that needs to be resolved because that creates issues for different platforms to make the standard skeleton”.
Lisa believes that in the future, these issues may get resolved. But every big company involved in this technology and the companies in contract with government agencies have to work together to support and adopt the same standard. Additionally, a validation gateway needs to be implemented for all digital assets. For example, when a user registers themselves in NFT, blockchain, or other associated platforms, it should validate the user is the IP owner. It needs the collaborative efforts of different governments and companies worldwide to implement, comply and provide a stable choice structure that benefits everyone.
What Emerging Tech Companies Need To Focus To Progress Disruptive Technologies
“When the big companies engage in the Metaverse, the key point they need to focus on is how to keep users being engaged. For example, do not use a cartoony virtual environment for business structure, or if the user is young, they need a more attractive and engaging design. There is nothing that we cannot simulate in the virtual world. Actually, we can do more in the virtual world than the real world, so It is all about your user’s needs”.
How 4D Simulations Helps In The Creation Of Metaverse
“In the simulation, you need to measure things from the real world or create a mirror to the offline world and analyze. So it needs source data from the offline world. Then we have to get the architectural information to model the pears, put all that together into a virtual world, and then model a vessel. So, for example, in real estate, if I want to renovate a kitchen, I can simulate a kitchen to see the physical size. Additionally, change the configuration of the kitchen, or have my avatar enter inside that kitchen so that I can look and feel around and experience how it is going to be in my home”.
She added it depends on the design of the virtual environment, whether it is complex or straightforward. Companies need specific tools to create those designs and render them into the virtual world if it is complex. If it is simple, the user can do that modification independently and not need external tools or software.
“Usability is the key to designing a perfect virtual environment. But unfortunately, only a few platforms have good Usability. So again, the essential thing to keep in mind while creating the virtual environment is – always make it easy for the users”.
Creating Virtual Environments For Gaming
“If we talk about gaming, it is not a metaverse. It is only one sector of a metaverse. For example, if you play an ordinary multiplayer game, although you engage with multiple users, you are not socialized. Therefore, you are involved in the Metaverse; you are just playing a multiplayer game. But there are some larger games, such as “World of Warcraft,” which added some social components. Those are the sector of Metaverse. You must know different platforms if you are a creator because Metaverse gaming is unique and needs a different specialty”.
3D Open Standards In Open Source Applications
She thinks companies need to collaborate by agreeing to comply and supporting the open standards. They need to refocus as an industry towards open standards. If that needs to develop new open standards, that’s fine. The problem is we live in a world where everyone has their own definition of Metaverse, then choosing one open standard becomes challenging. That is an issue that requires collective efforts.
Metaverse, According To Lisa
“There is only one Metaverse, and that is a collection of virtual universes, and those universes are a collection of different virtual worlds. Within this virtual world, you would have more subdivisions known as Regions, subdivided into parcels, whose sizes vary according to the people’s needs in which they can work or play. In the Metaverse, you can engage as an avatar, landowner, educator, business owner, employee, entertainer, musician, etc. There is no limit to what you can do in this virtual space”.
Lisa added, “Metaverse is all in composite, and when we understand the idea behind it, we can move forward together more towards the open standards to make sure that we are not just looking at it what’s there in it for me instead, it is what’s in it for us. So in my opinion, Metaverse is communities of communities.”
Conclusion
The idea of the Metaverse looks exciting, but right now, it’s tough to say what the future holds. Perhaps, the emergence of 5G and the growing interest in VR/AR technologies can create favorable conditions for developing something similar. The creators of the Metaverse will face many challenges. As per Lisa, the essential point where the creators need to focus on is – always thinking about the users’ needs when designing your 3D environment.
We have many questions about how the Metaverse works, the extent of the benefits it offers, and its accessibility to ordinary users. Thus, when executed correctly, the Metaverse can enhance the way people interact on the web.
Khatija is a Senior Editor at To The Verge. Her interest in tech started when she came across AI, IoT, and XR. Always keen to learn the latest tech peripherals, Khatija loves to interact with tech industry experts and dig for information relating to emerging technologies. When not nerding over technology, she can be found on the couch binging mystery or sci-fi movies.
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