Interesting.

clipped from www.openthefuture.com The Metaverse Roadmap Overview, an exploration of imminent 3D technologies, posited a number of different scenarios of what a future “metaverse” could look like. The four scenarios — augmented reality, life-logging, virtual worlds, and mirror worlds — each offered a different manifestation of an immersive 3D world. Of the four, I suspect that augmented reality is most likely to be widespread soon; moreover, when it hits, it’s going to have a surprisingly big impact. Augmented reality (AR) can be thought of as a combination of widely-accessible sensors (including cameras), lightweight computing technologies, and near-ubiquitous high-speed wireless networks — a combination that’s well-underway — along with a sophisticated form of visualization that layers information over the physical world. Imagine holding up an iPhone-like device, scanning what’s around you, seeing various pop-up items and data links on your screen. That’s something like what an early AR system might look like clipped from www.openthefuture.com