An overview of the Metaverse1 Initiative

1. An overview of the Metaverse1 Initiative

2. Introduction by: Yesha, the Metaverse1 Architect • Metaverse will be big. - Big for Business - Even bigger for society • Metaverse defined: 3D3C - 3D, Community, Creation, Commerce • Standards are THE key for the Metaverse Hence: Metaverse1 project More Info: • Blog: www.dryesha.com • Site www.metaverse-labs.com • If anyone wants lab space in SL please send me email.

3. Metaverse1 Initiative Major Challenge Metaverse1 Global standards among real and virtual worldsBridging the gaps within virtual worlds & between virtual and real worldsCreating your next life

4. Metaverse1 is proposed to ITEA2 • ITEA: Information Technology for European Advancement • ITEA is an EUREKA Cluster Project • Aim: Stimulate and support the development of software technology for the benefit of the European industry • ITEA (1); • Eight year program divided in 8 calls for proposals • At the end of 2005: 85 projects (duration between 2 and 3 years) with in total some 400+ partners from 23 countries • Some 10,000 person-years have been invested so far • Funding is by National Authorities • Normally pre-competitive industrial R&D is funded with 50% • ITEA-2 started in 2006, again for eight years aiming at doubling the investment compared to ITEA

5. Metaverse1: Abstract • The Metaverse1 project will provide: a standardized global framework enabling the interoperability between: • Virtual worlds (as for example Second Life, World of Warcraft, IMVU, Active Worlds, Google Earth and many others) and the • Real world (sensors, actuators, vision and rendering, social and welfare systems, banking, insurance, travel, real estate and many others). • Metaverse1 “for all’ will pay special attention at the eInclusion*,** of minorities in the society … * eInclusion is about making sure that everyone in society can benefit from the opportunities offered by new information and communications technologies inclusive of the emerging virtual worlds ** The project will focus on specific scenarios, such as: tourism, eInclusion, support for elderly / disabled / minorities and entertainment, infotainment & edutainment. These application scenarios will be specifiedin the beginning of the project

6. Metaverse1: Metaverse1 Laboratory in SL

7. Metaverse1: Goals and Showstoppers The Metaverse1 goal is to offer the power to reshape the way companies interact with their environments (markets, customers, suppliers, stakeholders, etc.) in a fashion comparable to the Internet did As such Metaverse1 allows for the development of new (breakthrough) business models, services, applications and devices Unfortunately, currently there are a number of showstoppers*: • No feedback-interfaces exist into / from real world • No security, trust and privacy management • Metaverse content cannot be ported between virtual worlds • Metaverses are limited to “chat / text” oriented interaction • Metaverses are imperfect and incomplete • Metaverses are fragmented • Metaverses use different and cumbersome technology • No profound and sound knowledge on business models • No knowledge on who, how and why do people engage • No mechanisms to balance viral brand enhancement * Order indicates descending relevance for standardization

8. Metaverse1: Market Relevance The concepts behind the Metaverse1 project potentially have a high market value in terms of the social and economic impact: • The socialaspects, including the eInclusion, are important from the point of view that more processes and services move from the ‘real’ to the virtual world. • The societal and sociable values will be taken into account on an equal basis as the value proposition for the entertainment & gaming business. • Making the eInclusion functionalities available for all segments and groups of the European citizens, without excluding groups with limited social, cultural, economic or technical abilities, is a major theme. • From an economic point of view the emerging virtual market has a high growth potential. It will certainly replace for some part existing markets but will also certainly create new market opportunities. • It’s very important in this context that agreements / interfaces / standards are being developed to guide the economy, privacy, security, fairness, inclusion, ethics and the like in and between the virtual worlds and the ‘real’ world. Note that the anticipated social and economic impact require good interoperability between the very many and independently developed and exploited virtual worlds and the ‘real’ world.

9. Metaverse1: interfacing real & virtual worlds …

10. Metaverse1: Anticipated Tech. Innovations The Metaverse1 project will develop a global framework, driven by the selected application domains*, to achieve interoperability between the various technologies that are being applied in the existing and evolving virtual worlds as well as the associated ‘real’ worlds. Some of these essential technology innovations can already be identified at this stage like for instance: ** • Interfaces for displays, control devices, sensors, robotics, … • Definition of a framework for security, trust, privacy, … • Interfaces supporting avatar mobility and platform diversification • User profile characterization • Combining the new media paradigm with the best of traditional media • Application & service development platform • Business-models • Development of avatar based marketing strategies * Please refer to next slide for the ‘selected application domains’ ** Order indicates descending relevance for standardization

11. Metaverse1: Selected Application Domains • Training/Learning/Simulation (serious games for training, learning & simulation) • Serious Games for Disaster management • VR/AR based remote cooperative maintenance systems • Language Learning • Tourism (including virtual travel to bypass practical obstacles of any kind) *, ** • Virtual Travel • Virtual museum • eInclusion (local, country, European government, cultural, historical, political, religious) • Interplay of Virtual and Real World Social Behavior • Social Presence (being at ‘home’ while away, content sharing, experience sharing ..) • Virtual Traces of Real Places • Support for Elderly / Disabled / Minorities (including social presence, medical support ..) • Serious gaming for Ambient Assisted Living • Entertainment, Infotainment & Edutainment • Interplay of Virtual and Real World Social Behavior * Supported by the Patronato de Turismo de Gran Canaria. ** Supported by the Technical County Museum Mecklenburg-Vorpommern TCM

12. Metaverse1: use case illustrations …

13. Metaverse1: Major Expected Results The major visible results of the Metaverse1 project will be the following*: • Standards for the global framework and specific interfaces for existing and Metaverse1 technologies • Global Framework requirements (SOTA and use cases based) • Global Framework design, implementation • (Missing) essential technologies definition  SOTA and use cases derived • State of the art overview (SOTA) inventory • Use cases addressing specific customer target groups • Metaverse1 technology extensions design and implementation • Integration of Global Framework  with existing and Metaverse1 developed technologies • Use case driven demonstrators for focused user groups (with the Virtual European Cities as user interaction metaphor) • Use Case driven validation with the focused user groups for all targeted application domains * Order indicated descending relevance for standardization

14. Metaverse1: Exploitation&Dissemination For the dissemination and exploitation of the results of the Metaverse1 project several mechanisms will be used: • Standardization and dissemination related to ISO/IEC MPEG*, TC37/SC4 and / or W3C's SMIL with contributions in the area of the definition of architecture, interoperability interfaces and meta-data • Conferences in the domain of virtual worlds, internet standards and meta-data • Tutorials at related conference to disseminate the ideas and seek corporation with other projects, consortia, companies and initiatives • Demonstrators at conferences and (trade) shows to show the benefits of the use of the global framework with the use case driven demonstrators within the Virtual European Cities • Workshops & courses organized by the Metaverse1 project to create awareness and educate in the application of the global framework and the Metaverse1 technologies * Initial discussion with MPEG have already taken place, an MPEG output document “w9196 Metaverse: Context & Objectives” has been published.

15. Metaverse1: Virtual City Metaphor …

16. Metaverse1: Consortium Overview The Metaverse1 consortium, 47 partners, is build from participants of large and small & medium industry as well as academia / institutes from 8 participating countries • The large industry representatives are: Philips Research, Philips I-lab, Philips Design, Forthnet S.A., Alcatel-Lucent Bell N.V., Innovalia, Telefonica I&D, ESI, FAST, Siemens IT, arvato systems GmbH and Alcatel-Lucent France. • The small & medium enterprises are representative by: DevLab, UsableWeb, Nazooka, CBT, Nextel, Carsa, Avantalia, I&IMS, VicomTECH, E-PYME, SiteOS, Radon Labs, Metaverse Labs, Geosim Systems Ltd., IRS[N], EMI and Centre Henri Tudor. • The academia & institutes are represented by: Technical University Eindhoven, Utrecht University, University of Twente, Stg. EPN, VU Economics & BA, VU CAMeRA, Ellinogermaniki Agogi, IBBT-SMIT, UPF-MTG, University of Rostock, C-LAB / University of Paderborn, Fraunhofer IGD RostockC-Lab, TCM Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, CEA List, CNRS – LIFL, Loria/Inria Lorraine, GIE INTRA and ENSOSP. • The participating countiesare:The Netherlands (10 partners), Greece (3 partner), Belgium (3 partners), Spain (11 partners), Germany (9 partners), Israel (2 partners), France (8 partners) and Luxembourg (1 partner).

17. Metaverse1: Consortium Overview (Cont.) A large number and variety of capabilities are required to complete this challenging task, the consortium has all these capabilities on board: • Domain oriented:implication of information and communication technology for society in healthcare and virtual worlds, economics and law focusing on the interwoven physical and virtual reality, well-being, e-Tourism, real estate management, city planning, homeland security, serious games for the security & crisis management, tourism, learning, training (for instance for firefighters), edutainment, entertainment, elderly care, ambient assisted living, creation of precise and realistic 3D-models of actual cities, integrating of 3D-models city-related content … • Technology oriented: physical avatars, high level interfaces & programming for avatars, embodied & multi-agents, mobile robotics, mobile motion tracking, wireless sensor networks, Metaverse information security and security framework, authoring environments, Metaverse service development platforms & tools … • Business / Operational oriented:Metaverse business models, business management strategies, seamless crossing virtual and real worlds, usability engineering, human media interaction, multimodal interaction, recommendation and user profiling, service-oriented architectures, service management for fixed/mobile service, service personalization and adaptation, new security and trust concepts the Metaverse …