Hardware & Gear

You can access and view some Metaverse platforms with a PC, but the experience is usually far less immersive than dedicated augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) gear.

Smartphones can also be used to access some Metaverse platforms and games although the experience will be limited. If you’re running an iPhone with iOS11 or newer, or a modern Android device, both mobile device manufacturers offer software development kits that let independent developers and large companies build AR apps.

The powerful and lightning-fast 5G technology is key for the Metaverse to reach its full potential and make Web 3.0 a reality. 5G delivers rate, range, reliability, latency and so much more. The developer community requires 5G technology to ensure interoperability and a quality immersive experience between virtual worlds.

The gateway for most of us to enter the Metaverse will be AR glasses. These are reality headsets, also known as “smart glasses”, that enable users to interact with virtual and real worlds in real-time through high-level imaging and sensing technologies.

AR glasses superimpose computer-generated elements, images, videos, 3D holograms, or others over users’ real-world scenes from their point of view to enhance their experience.

This is a 3-step process:

1. The camera or head-mounted display sensor scans and captures natural scenes of the user’s environment.
2. Then, the device scans and analyses the captured scene to determine where to overlay the pre-loaded virtual elements.
3. Next, it requests the virtual elements, overlaying them on the real-world scene in real-time to create Augmented Reality for the user.

VR headsets make use of technologies such as gyroscopes, accelerometers, magnetometers, along with a stereoscopic head-mounted display that provide separate images for each eye and create a fully immersive experience. These tiny sensors allow us to measure motion and direction in space. Something that is necessary to know when translating movement  to the virtual world.

Eye tracking technology with VR headsets are also taking hold where you will enable you to look right at an image instead of trying to use your hands, and it could be the gateway to better-looking VR graphics and smaller, smarter headsets. Eye tracking could also open up ways of having your avatar make more “human-like” eye contact with other avatars in the Metaverse.

Using VR gloves, alternatively meta-haptic gloves, you can feel virtual objects as if they were real. The glove is lined with ridged and inflatable plastic pads known as actuators that reproduce sensations like grasping an object or running your hand along a surface.

When you put on the glove and enter a VR or AR experience, a sophisticated control system adjusts the level of inflation, creating pressure on various parts of your hand. If you’re touching a virtual object with your fingertips, you’ll feel the sensation of that object pressing into your skin. If you’re gripping a virtual item, the long finger actuators will stiffen, creating a sensation of resistance. These sensations work alongside visual and audio cues to produce the illusion of physical touch.