BARCELONA, SPAIN (AP) — I climbed into the front seat of an air taxi, buckled up, and waited for the plane to take off. The futuristic cityscape of Busan, South Korea disappeared, and a digital avatar appeared on his front glass with a message.

A wave of motion sickness hit me so I couldn’t answer. Combined with virtual reality goggles and a seat that simulates rocking back and forth, it felt like I was actually hovering and maneuvering in mid-air. They also made me feel so nauseous that I had to close my eyes for the rest of the three minute journey.

Visitor Mark Varahona also felt sick after trying out the flying experience, but is still considering buying a virtual reality headset, the hardware needed to enter an immersive digital universe.

“I thought I’d buy them before I got here, and maybe I’ll buy them now,” he said.

The Metaverse exploded in popularity in late 2021 after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg proclaimed it to be the Internet’s next big thing. rename his social media empire And pour tens of billions of dollars into that idea.

He described it as a 3D community where people could meet, work and play, doing everything from trying on digital clothes, holding virtual meetings, and traveling online.

meta said Plans to hire 10,000 engineers in Europe Work on the metaverse. When asked to update, the company said: We remain committed to Europe. “

“The metaverse is not gone,” says Ben Wood, principal analyst at CCS Insight. “But I think there is more skepticism about what role it will play, especially in consumer domains beyond the obvious areas such as gaming.”

It was difficult to pin down the definition of the metaverse, join the skepticismThis is not the same as virtual reality or its cousin augmented reality, said Thuong Nguyen, an analyst specializing in new technologies at Gartner.

“So AR and VR are very closely related to the metaverse in the same way computers are to the internet,” he said. “Instead, think of it as an evolution of the Internet that changes the way we interact with the world.”

So how should SK Telecom’s flight simulator be defined?

“Technically, it’s not a metaverse, it’s a kind of metaverse,” said company manager Ken Wohn.

South Korea’s largest telecom provider last year partnered with California’s Joby Aviation to develop an electric air taxi service to the country.

One day, Wohn said, air taxis could operate autonomously using high-speed 5G wireless connections.

It was a different experience at French radio company Orange’s. Metaverse demonstrationIn , users were transported to a futuristic, neon-colored technoscape, featuring lightning bolts, giant robots, and falcons carrying green orbs in their talons.

Introducing dance figures that represent the movements of real dancers wearing motion capture gear. It was a dazzling display, but the consumer’s purpose wasn’t immediately apparent.

Miguel Angel Almonacid, Network Strategy Director for Spain at Orange, said: New 5G network Eliminate delays for metaverse users watching what’s happening in the distance.

The metaverse may be better suited for practical purposes in the workplace, analysts say.

Gartner’s Nguyen said, “That’s where we’ll see the first traction because the barriers aren’t that high.” For example, workers can use augmented reality glasses to call up diagnostics and instruction manuals.

Spanish startup La Frontera uses the Metaverse to offer virtual meetings with ‘realistic avatars’.

We first arrived at a beach with rocks, palm trees and light blue waters. Her avatar appeared, her head and shoulders hovering in front of her chest with insubstantial hands. I walked into a nearby conference room with a boardroom table and used her handheld controller to pick up her 3D objects, such as a toy ray gun and a bottle of champagne.

Other metaverse applications include training for high-risk, repetitive or highly detailed procedures such as surgery.

Beach disappeared, instead an overturned tank truck caught fire. A fire extinguisher suspended in the air. Ortiz grabbed it with his virtual hand and told him to spray the flames as they began to die.

Virtual worlds can also be useful for showcasing products that are too large to be easily moved, such as private jets.

Or they may be too small for humans.

The scene changed to a sci-fi setting, with crimson walls rising up around us representing the insides of blood vessels. The walls of blood vessels have opened to reveal pulsating white lines on a blue background, depicting neurons in the brain.

La Frontera will work with pharmaceutical companies to “show how drugs work in the body at the cellular level,” Ortiz said. It was a medicine to treat

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