This year at CES, several corporations and startups focused on Web3, showing revolutionary devices that promise to make the metaverse more “real.”
HTC, for example, unveiled its VIVE XR Elite VR headset, which is likely to compete with Meta Quest Pro. The headsets’ lightweight design, adjustable IPD and diopter dials, and depth-sensing accuracy make them worthy competitors.
Meanwhile, OVR Technology showcased its standalone wearable device ION 3: a device that delivers scents by using cartridges and synchronizes the scent delivery system with the content users view in VR, AR, or on mobile or desktop devices. With ION 3, smelling would be possible in the metaverse, enhancing the reality of the experience.
Smell, however, is not the only human sense that companies have attempted to enhance in the virtual world. For example, with its Haptic Metaverse Gloves, AI Silk focused on touch. With their built-in finger-bending sensors, the gloves are made of the company’s proprietary conductive fiber, LEAD SKIN, which provides wearers with tactile feedback when they “touch” metaverse items.
Canon also focused on virtual reality this year at CES. During the presentation, the company displayed Kokomo, its first application for a VR platform that enables face-to-face communication in a virtual space with live video.
These were just a few of the Web3-related innovations on display at the world’s largest technology event, which took place in Las Vegas from January 5-8, 2023. Time will tell what happens next; for now, McKinsey predicts the metaverse might be worth $5 trillion by 2030.
