Dubai: Third ‘Future Talks’ session at Museum of the Future explores potentials of Metaverse

Dubai: Museum of the Future in Dubai today hosted Alex Kipman, vice-president of Artificial Intelligence and Mixed Reality at Microsoft, who spoke about Metaverse — a persistent, online, 3D universe that combines multiple virtual spaces as a future iteration of the internet, thereby seamlessly blending the virtual and the real worlds.

Speaking at the third session of the ‘Future Talks’ series at Museum of the Future, Kipman said: “For all the hype around Metaverse, I want to define Metaverse. It is the idea of correspondence between the real and virtual worlds. It is the idea of technology existing in the real world. It is a bridge between the virtual and the real. This is done through the language of people, places and things. It can displace space and time.”

Kipman walked the audience through an immersive video of what it feels like to see through the eyes of the HoloLens — Microsoft’s take on augmented reality, which is called “mixed reality”. It is a pair of mixed-reality smartglasses that use multiple sensors, advanced optics, thermal sensors, and holographic processing that melds seamlessly with its environment. These holograms can be used to display information, blend with the real world, or even simulate a virtual world.

Kipman, who was chosen by Time magazine among the 100 most important people in the world for 2011, also spoke about the current and future applications of mixed reality, saying that this technology opens the door to achieving leaps in the field of education, especially by mixing theoretical education with realistic training and allowing students to test different devices and systems or moving to the fields of historical events to live the experiences in them as if they were on the ground.

He added that mixed reality will have a tremendous impact in the fields of health and medicine, entertainment, military and defence sector, remote work and retail.

Kipman praised the UAE for its vision. “I am extremely impressed with the vision of UAE. This is my first trip here and to just see the consistency of vision and execution that allows you to, from just short of two generations, to go from where you were to where you are today is nothing short of visionary.”

'Immersive experiences' 

Khalifa Al Qama, director of Dubai Future Labs, said: “Discussions about mixed reality and the opportunities that metaverses provide to humanity in all sectors reflect the forward-looking vision of the Museum of the Future, which employs the concept of immersive experiences for the visitor.”

Future Talks

A series of talks is being staged at the Museum of the Future from February 24 to March 29. It is open to the public free of charge, subject to prior registration via the museum’s website.