draggett
commented
3 years ago An important consideration is how AR/VR integrates with the existing Web from the user experience point of view. This is critical for broadening AR/VR beyond niche applications. When does AR/VR offer clear benefits when compared to conventional web pages, and vice versa? How can users seamlessly switch between the two?
This requires collaborative effort and is an opportunity for forming a W3C Interest Group to investigate further, along with exploring the use cases and requirements as a prelude to standardisation. Here is some food for thought:
- The means for users to easily cycle between an image, a video and immersive AR/VR, where available, and analogous to going full-screen on video
- The means for users to seamlessly switch devices for a richer experience, e.g. from smart phone to smart glasses
- Integration of 360 video and augmented reality with both 2D and 3D
- AR/VR as a means to give interactive experiences greater vitality and reduced customer churn
- Role of open standards to strongly boost ecosystem growth compared to proprietary approaches
The Web’verse is my name for a Web of services based upon open standards for augmented and virtual reality. Earlier work in the mid-nineties focused on VRML, but failed to get traction, in part due to the then computer speeds and slow networks. Thirty years on we are in a much better situation with fast computers, and networks with low latency and high bandwidth. The Web’verse is a natural fit for 5G networks and decentralised services using a mix of cloud and edge computing. The Web’verse integrates the IoT by exposing sensors and actuators as virtual devices.
Web browsers are now mature with declining need for new standards, and a shrinking gene pool for browser software. The Web’verse would be a new open web platform and a chance to give W3C a fresh lease of life! Without open standards, we will see fragmentation into non-interoperable proprietary ecosystems hosted by the large Internet platform providers, just as we saw with AOL, CompuServe and Prodigy in the early nineties, and the rival mobile platforms of today from Apple and Google.
These days, we can add AI/ML into the mix as the basis for realistic behaviour of avatars for human and cognitive agents in the Web’verse. You would control your avatar via hand gestures, touch screens or game controllers with AI being used to generate fluid movements of high resolution avatars. The device camera would be used to capture your facial expressions and map them in real-time to those of your avatar. Similarly, the device microphone would be used to transform your voice according to your preferences. Users would be free to choose between VR headsets. head up displays for augmented reality, and regular devices with cameras and microphones.
Web-based AR/VR would enable services for entertainment, education, commerce and remote interaction with friends and colleagues. Say goodbye to tired old Zoom/WebEx/Teams teleconferences, and hello to immersive Web experiences!
See my 1994 paper on Web-based VR to get a feel for what would be needed: