Metaverse: The Vision for the Future

Abstract

In recent years, the notion of the Metaverse has become the focus of a growing body of work in the industry. However, there is no consensus on the conceptualization in academia. To date, much of this attention has revolved around technological challenges.However, what is notably missing from these discussions is a consideration of the human factors and social aspects that are considered more critical challenges within HCI. The aims of this SIG are as follows: Firstly, to provide a platform for researchers and practitioners to engage with the various definitions and the ways in which the Metaverse is developing. Secondly, to discuss the opportunities, challenges, and future possibilities in the context of HCI. This will lay the foundations to build a network for academics interested in the field for future multidisciplinary research relating to the Metaverse. CCS Concepts: • Human-centered computing → Human computer interaction (HCI).

Student Barriers to Active Learning in Synchronous Online Classes: Characterization, Reflections, and Suggestions

“…The realization of the universal metaverse gets closer with each passing day [8,10,29,39,44]. Although scholars have defined the term metaverse in myriad ways (see [24,41]), they are yet to settle on a single definition.…”

“…Bloomberg Intelligence estimates that the metaverse market will be worth approximately $800 billion by 2024 [20]. Against this backdrop, a wide range of industries and businesses, including music, fashion, food, games, and social media, are seeking to capitalize on the untapped potential of this new technology [8,10,24,29,39,44].…”

What is the Metaverse and who seeks to define it? Mapping the site of social construction

“…Mystakidis (2022) sees it as a perpetual and persistent multi-user environment that is unfolding around VR and AR. Finally, others conclude that no precise definition is possible (e.g., Xu et al, 2022). The literature also disagrees about which elements the Metaverse is made of, or what attributes it has (Inceoglu and Ciloglugil, 2022;Lee et al, 2021;Park and Kim, 2022).…”

“…Others focus on aspects, opportunities, and risks relevant for a specific domain (Inceoglu and Ciloglugil, 2022; Kim, 2021; Peukert et al, 2022). Some conclude that a stringent definition is not possible (Peukert et al, 2022; Xu et al, 2022). Others identify aspects for which a consensus exists in the literature (Dincelli and Yayla, 2022) or among practitioners (Schöbel et al, 2023).…”

Beyond the Blue Sky of Multimodal Interaction: A Centennial Vision of Interplanetary Virtual Spaces in Turn-based Metaverse

“…Nowadays, the Metaverse refers to an immersive Internet, characterized by an endless and gigantic virtual environment that is able to accommodate a million users for activities (e.g., content creation) simultaneously [7]. Since 2021, numerous virtual worlds have advent, which connect people via their avatars (e.g., Meta Horizon Workrooms 1 ), although Xu et al pinpointed the lack of consensus on the Metaverse conceptualization among research communities [15]. An article [6] recently presented a comprehensive survey regarding the technological enablers and ecosystem issues for implementing the Metaverse, in which the authors mentioned the Metaverse progression could be divided into three stages, namely (1) digital twins, (2) digital natives, and eventually (3) the convergence of physical and virtual environments.…”