Unfold Metaverse

22/03/2022

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said a few days ago that the photo-sharing app Instagram will soon introduce non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to the platform. Although there has been talk about Instagram going into NFTs for months, this is the first time Zuckerberg has confirmed the news personally.

21/03/2022

FaceBook’s (META) sci-fi haptic glove prototype lets you feel VR objects.
When you put on the glove and enter a VR or AR experience, a very smart control system creates pressure on different 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 VR item, the long finger actuators will stiffen, creating a sensation of resistance. These sensations provide visual and audio cues to produce the illusion of physical touch.

While these gloves are insanely cool, they are not the first example of e-textile and haptic clothing. There are a lot of companies that make haptic clothing like vests, pants, and even entire suits since the 1990s.
So Meta did not invent haptic clothing — much like the term metaverse. You can find this term first used in the novel Snow Crash, which I would highly recommend you to read. Speaking about the clothing, haptic suits specifically played a key role in the movie Ready Player One. In the real world, the vast majority of people using technology like this are really serious gamers with money. A haptic vest that will poke you in 40 different places on your body, for instance, costs $500. But in general, it is great how accessible this stuff is becoming. Haptic feedback, body tracking (SlimeVR)…you name it.
Technologies change rapidly our perception of reality and this is just the beginning. Altering one’s body perception through e-textiles and haptic clothing is a mind-blowing concept. However, the potential of these experiences remains largely unexplored. Let’s see what the future holds!

15/03/2022

Meta, formerly Facebook, has showcased a prototype of its haptic gloves to let people feel and interact with virtual objects in the digital space. The Reality Labs research wing of Meta is working on the haptic gloves as part of the tech giant's push towards augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR)-focussed Metaverse. The wearable reproduces sensations such as texture, pressure, and vibration in virtual worlds. Meta is planning to place the haptic gloves along with a VR headset and make them compatible with AR glasses in the future.

Meta on November 16 detailed the work that has gone into developing the haptic gloves as part of its move to enter the metaverse. Meta says its Reality Labs division has been developing the wearable for the past seven years. Meta is still not sure about the actual time needed for the launch of the haptic glove. Building these gloves is a challenge that requires inventing entirely new domains of scientific research, notes the company.

The haptic gloves can be paired with a VR headset for online multiplayer games. Also, Meta eyes to use it along with AR glasses as well. “While we're still in the early stages of this research, the goal is to one day pair the gloves with your VR headset for an immersive experience like playing in a concert or poker game in the metaverse, and eventually, they'd work with your AR glasses,” said Meta in the blog post.

07/03/2022

Recording artist Billie Eilish is joining the metaverse as her company Lash Music LLC has filed a pair of trademark applications for her name and the Blohsh logo with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

These applications, filed on February 26, 2022, indicate that the pop singer plans to expand into the metaverse and offer non-fungible tokens (NFTs), digital collectibles, and software featuring virtual currency.

04/03/2022

Bollywood star Ajay Devgn has stepped into the Metaverse universe with his virtual avatar inspired by ‘Rudra – The Edge of Darkness’.

Talking about this new development, lead actor Ajay Devgn said, “The exciting and novel space of the metaverse is an all-new world. It goes beyond our wildest imagination. I have always wanted to be closer to my fans and today I can proudly say – I am there. With my avatar, inspired by my role in ‘Rudra- The Edge of Darkness, I am marking yet another first by foraying into the metaverse with the Hotstar Specials’ series that is so close to my heart now.”

02/03/2022

Former adult entertainment actress Lana Rhoades has seemingly abandoned her non-fungible tokens (NFT) project after the launch raised $1.8m (£1.3m), transferring out 509 Ethereum (ETH) worth $1.5m, according to internet investigator Coffeezilla.

The social media influencer with over 20 million followers on her social media accounts first introduced the NFT project dubbed ‘CryptoSis’ in November 2021.

28/02/2022

Binance will donate $10 million to intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to provide emergency relief to Ukrainian refugees and children, the worlds' largest cryptocurrency exchange said in a media release.

Binance will allocate the funds through organizations on the ground, including UNICEF; UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency; the International Strategic Action Network for Security (iSANS) and People in Need. The company has an existing partnership with UNICEF.

27/02/2022

In a recent Inside the Lab: Building for the metaverse with AI live stream, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg details the various new AI-based technologies that his company is currently developing for the metaverse. Zuckerberg mentioned, among other things, that Meta aims to create a universal language translation system so that users can communicate with others in the metaverse without fear of language barriers.

“The big goal here is to build a universal model that can incorporate knowledge across all modalities,” Zuckerberg said. “This will enable a vast scale of predictions, decisions, and generation as well as whole new architectures training methods and algorithms that can learn from a vast and diverse range of different inputs,” he further added.

Now, coming to its plan for developing such a model, the company says that it is currently working on two separate AI language translation models. The first one, “No Language Left Behind“, will be able to learn every language, even when there is limited text available to learn from.

“We are creating a single model that can translate hundreds of languages with state-of-the-art results and most of the language pairs — everything from Austrian to Uganda to Urdu,” stated Zuckerberg.

27/02/2022