Metaverse Developments, Technologies, and Standards - Towards a Military Metaverse?

Metaverse
Developments,
Technologies,
and Standards
-
Towards a Military
Metaverse?
Andy Fawkes
FIMechE
SISO Symposium at IT2EC 2022
London
25 April 2022

Outline
• What is the Metaverse and why is it of
interest?
• Metaverse Developments and Technologies
• Metaverse Standards
• Towards a Military Metaverse?

Previously …
2020
2022
2021
2021

What is the Metaverse
and Why is it of
Interest?

Some Historical Context …
Created by Gibson, the word “Cyberspace” is
popularised and “had no real semantic meaning”
a "mass consensual hallucination" in computer
networks
Stephenson creates the word “Metaverse”, a
portmanteau of "meta" (meaning beyond) and
“universe”
“ … a computer-generated universe …”
Real
World
Digital
World
1992
1984

Some More History - 2007
“In sum, for the best view of the
changes ahead, we suggest thinking
of the Metaverse not as virtual
space but as the junction or nexus of
our physical and virtual worlds.”

Some Contemporary Metaverse Descriptions …
“A concept of a future iteration of the Internet, made up of
persistent, shared, 3D virtual spaces linked into a perceived virtual
universe”
Wikipedia
“The metaverse is a seamless convergence of our physical and
digital lives, creating a unified, virtual community where we can
work, play, relax, transact and socialize.’
“Opportunities in the Metaverse” 2022
“The metaverse enables us to embed computing into the real
world and to embed the real world into computing ...”
Satya Nadella, CEO Microsoft, Microsoft Ignite Nov 2021

What is Different Now?
• Computing Power and Availability
• Network Capacity and Reach
• Data Storage and Discoverability
• XR (VR/MR/AR)
• Ubiquitous Gaming
• Investment by Big Tech Companies, e.g.
• Microsoft
• Nvidia
• Meta/Facebook
• The Pandemic
Source - WePC

The (2D) Internet & Gaming Now Dominate our Waking Lives …
https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2021-april-global-statshot
Gaming
>1 hr/day
Internet
7 hrs/day

Science Fiction?
Are we already
living in a
(2D) Metaverse?
Or alternatively, a
Hybrid-verse or
Proto-Metaverse?

Some Common
Metaverse and
Defence M&S
Themes
• Interoperability
• Digital Asset ownership
• Security
• Networking
• Computing
• XR/Human-Computing Interfaces
• AI
• Data & Analytics
• User engagement/experience
• Community

Metaverse Big Picture
A Convergence of Technologies & Human Behaviours

Metaverse Developments and
Technologies

Google Trends
“Metaverse”
Facebook changes company name to Meta – 28 Oct 21
Keeping Up!

Some Contemporary “Proto-Metaverse” Developments
• Microsoft
• Mesh - a collaboration and communications platform supporting virtual
collaboration across multiple devices and the Microsoft Metaverse Apps Stack
• Nvidia
• Omniverse™ a scalable, real-time reference development platform for 3D
simulation and design collaboration
• Varjo Reality Cloud – “Teleport VR”
• Meta Quest 2 HMDs reportedly sold >10m (> sales than Xbox
consoles in 2021)
• Epic Games Unreal – supports mobile, XR, through to flight sim
domes (CAE)
• Roblox - 164m monthly active users, creating and playing 3D games,
played by >50% US children (<16) in 2020
• Second Life – launched 2003, a persistent 3D virtual world (GDP
$650m (2022))
• Decentraland - open source 3D virtual world platform with NFT-
based land ownership (opened Feb 2020)

Metaverse Related Technologies
Computing Software Networking
& Security
Human-
Computing
Interfaces
Data &
Digital
Twins
AI, Data &
Analytics
Automation
& Robotics
Sensors Standards
Quantum
Collaborative
3D Software
6G
eXtended
Reality XR
Digital Twins
Personal tutors
and guides
Everyday
Robotics
Computer
Vision
Open
HLA4?
Cloud Games Engines
Free-space
optical comms
(FSO) & LiFi
Holographic
Imaging
Personal Digital
Twin
Natural
Language
Understanding
Telexistence
Volumetric
Video
Industry/
Proprietary
Edge Web 3.0
Zero Trust
Security
Haptics
Blockchain/
Non-fungible
Tokens
(NFTs )
Auto/Machine
Translation
“Metamobility”
and “Mobility
of Things”
IoT
(Internet of
Things)
Spatial
Computing
Wearables Synthetic Data
Predictive
Decision
Support
DNA Digital
Data Storage
Human
Augmentation
Video and
audio
optimisation

Technologies are Maturing at Different Rates &
With Different Relevancies to Defence

The Khronos Group (Founded 2000)
Khronos currently identifies six market segments
relevant to developers with similar requirements
Khronos Group Promoter
Members (150+ members)

Academy Software Foundation (ASWF) (Founded 2018)
ASWF’s mission is to lower the barrier to entry for developing and using open source software

Other Standard-Related Initiatives
• Metaverse Interoperability Community Group (part of the World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C)) - Its mission is “to bridge virtual worlds by designing and promoting protocols for
identity, social graphs, inventory, and more” (103 participants).
• Open Metaverse Interoperability Group - focused on bridging virtual worlds by designing
and promoting protocols for identity, social graphs, inventory, and more.
• Nvidia’s Omniverse uses Disney’s Pixar open-source Universal Scene Description (USD) file
format.
• Epic Game’s Twinmotion platform can be used to import models from BIM and CAD
programs.
• The Unity Distribution Portal enables developers to create a single build of their app for
distribution and management across all mobile app stores.
• Cesium is an open platform for exploiting 3D geospatial data using the 3D Tiles open
standard.
• Discord allows developers to plug directly into their communications platform of 150m users.
• The Digital Twin Consortium comprises industry, government, and academia founded “to
accelerate the development, adoption, interoperability, and security of digital twins and
enabling technologies”.
• MPEG-V (2020) - Provides “an architecture and associated information representations to
enable the interoperability between virtual worlds with the real world, e.g. sensors, vision.”
Fun Fact - In Snow Crash, the metaverse’s design is “fixed by a protocol, hammered out
by the Association for Computing Machinery's Global Multimedia Protocol Group”

A Defence Perspective on the Metaverse
The concepts of virtual reality and avatars in a persistent virtual
world(s) remain, however,
the metaverse can be considered now to also embrace a wider
convergence of technologies of varying maturities that are
bringing the physical and digital worlds together and
represents the next evolution of computing, a trend from 2D,
to 3D, interaction, presence and immersion between humans,
machines and the digital world.
The metaverse could be considered a long standing vision
without a fixed roadmap to achieve it, but one that is much
closer than it was before.

A Military
Metaverse
-
Similar,
Separate &
Connected
Real World Metaverse
Military
Metaverse

Metaverse v Military Metaverse Features Mapping
Matthew Ball Jon Radoff Lik-Hang Lee et al Newzoo Roblox Microsoft Nvidia Military Metaverse
Hardware Tech Enablers -
Network
Metaverse Gateways -
Centralised
Identity Mesh & HoloLens Omniverse
Apps
Discovery
Networking Experience Tech Enablers -
Edge/Cloud
Metaverse Gateways -
Decentralised
Friends Power Platform Omniverse
Platform
User Interfaces & Immersion
Compute Discovery Tech Enablers -
Artificial Intelligence
Avatar & Identity Immersive Azure AI &
Autonomous
Systems
Artificial
Intelligence
Robotics/Sensors/IoT
Virtual Platforms Creator Economy Tech Enablers -
Computer Vision
User Interfaces &
Immersion
Low Friction Azure Analytics Graphics Data & Digital Twins
Interchange Tools and
Standards
Spatial Computing Tech Enablers -
Blockchain
Economy Variety Azure Maps Compute Virtual Economy
Payments Decentralization Tech Enablers -
Robotics/IoT
Social Anywhere Azure Digital
Twins
RTX GPU Content, Services, and Assets
Metaverse Content,
Services, and Assets
Human Interface Tech Enablers - User
Interactivity
Play-to-Earn/Collect Economy Azure IoT AI & Computer Vision
User Behaviours Infrastructure Tech Enablers -
Extended Reality
Infrastructure - Cloud,
Scalability & Hosting
Civility Physical World Interchange Tools and
Standards
Ecosystem - Avatar Infrastructure -
Visualisation & Digital
Network
Ecosystem - Content
Creation
Infrastructure - Artificial
Intelligence
Edge/Cloud
Ecosystem - Virtual
Economy
Decentralised
Infrastructure
Security, Privacy and Culture
Ecosystem - Social
Acceptability
Infrastructure - Adtech Procurement, Culture
Ecosystem - Security
& Privacy
Infrastructure -
Connectivity
Ecosystem - Trust &
Acceptability
"The Metaverse Primer"
June 2021
(https://www.matthewball.vc/th
e-metaverse-primer)
"The Metaverse
Value-Chain" 7 April
2021
(https://medium.com/bui
lding-the-metaverse/the-
metaverse-value-chain-
afcf9e09e3a7)
All One Needs to Know
about Metaverse: A
Complete Survey on
Technological
Singularity, Virtual
Ecosystem, and
Research Agenda,
Lik-Hang Lee et al,
Sept 2021
Newzoo Metaverse
Ecosystem Infographic 25
June 2022
"Roblox CEO
Dave Baszucki
believes users
will create the
metaverse" 27
January 2021
(https://venturebeat
.com/2021/01/27/ro
blox-ceo-dave-
baszucki-believes-
users-will-create-the-
metaverse/)
"Microsoft
Metaverse
Technology Stack"
26 May 2021
(https://azure.microsoft
.com/en-
gb/blog/converging-the-
physical-and-digital-with-
digital-twins-mixed-
reality-and-metaverse-
apps/)
"Nvidia reveals
Omniverse
Enterprise for
simulating
products and
worlds" 12 April
2021
(https://venturebeat.
com/2021/04/12/nvidi
a-reveals-omniverse-
enterprise-for-
simulating-products-
References

A Military Metaverse?
“Persistent secure networked
interoperable live, virtual and
constructive simulations,
synchronized with multi-domain
operational systems and
enterprise-wide digital twins of
equipments, platforms,
infrastructure and personnel
and the wider human and
natural world.”

Military Metaverse Consumers/Users
Operations
Research
Force
Development
Capability
Acquisition
Capability
Support
Training &
Education

Military Metaverse > ∑
As well as serving use cases across
defence, a military metaverse could
ensure M&S capabilities are always up
to date, consistent, verifiable, cost
effective and reach all that can benefit
… realising the full potential of
defence M&S, irrespective of distance.

Metaverse Headlines
The metaverse is of great significance to
defence M&S and the wider digital domain
The current interest/hype reflects a distant
vision that does not seem so distant now
The metaverse is not one technology, but
an umbrella term for many converging
M&S and wider technologies
No one is currently saying it will be a
single virtual world
The weight of $ external to defence will
drive developments, which are likely
unpredictable
Defence needs to be an “intelligent
customer” for metaverse technologies and
standards
A “Military Metaverse” could exploit
metaverse-related standards, technologies
and approaches, and provide now a
unifying vision for future defence
enterprise-wide M&S services
The metaverse will embed computing into
the real world and embed the real world
into computing

A Military Proto-
Metaverse:
1980s Distributed
Simulation Vision
and SIMNET
Blueprint
SIMNET’s 1980s Vision - Jack Thorpe PhD (Colonel, USAF, retired)

Back to Science Fiction …
1999 2009

Questions?
Andy Fawkes
andy.fawkes@thinke.co.uk
Amara's Law
“We tend to overestimate the effect of a
technology in the short run and
underestimate the effect in the long run.”
Roy Amara PhD (1925 – 2007)
Head of the Stanford Institute for the Future
SISO Symposium at IT2EC 2022
London
25 April 2022

Metaverse Developments, Technologies, and Standards - Towards a Military Metaverse?

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