Industrial Metaverse Could Be The Key To Enhanced Operations

A new report from Deloitte, one of the Big Four accounting firms, sheds light on the potential of the industrial metaverse. Nokia’s Thierry Klein explains the concept as “physical-digital fusion and human augmentation for industrial applications, and contains digital representations of physical industrial environments, systems, assets and spaces that people can control, communicate and interact with.”

Harnessing The Power of Digital Twins

The report underscores that metaverse capabilities are progressing within spatial computing space. By 2030, the industrial metaverse is likely to grow to become a $100 Billion market, surpassing the consumer and enterprise metaverse. Both are poised to generate $50 Billion and $30 Billion annually by the end of the decade.

Regular technological developments are becoming pillars of the metaverse. The report reads, “Over the past few years, advancements in technology have been building the scaffolding for the industrial metaverse. Investments in digital twins, 5G enablement, cloud, edge, and AI have driven significant value and addressed long-standing pain points.”

Company executives are continuously ideating about how to integrate the technology within their existing operations. Digital twins can harness the power of real-time data Internet of Things (IoT) to render existing operations more efficient or develop new ways to operate.

According to Deloitte, augmented reality (AR) is a viable means to access digital twins for industrial purposes. It says, “The optimal way to interact with these full-scale digital twins is through AR, a medium that can overlay the physical world with a digital layer to create a shared, three-dimensional immersive internet.”

Moreover, the global market for AR devices may reach $38.6 Billion in 2022, but official numbers have not been released across the internet. Data shows that there were 0.44 Billion AR users globally in 2019. The number grew dramatically to 1.4 Billion devices in 2023.

Extended reality (XR), a catch-all phrase used for virtual reality (VR), AR, and mixed reality (MR), is gaining popularity. Experts see more head-mounted displays (HMDs) will make use of them rather than solely focusing on an individual technology. Areas including education, remote work, training, and more may see increasing use of the technology.

An augmented workforce could be more effective than the physical one. The report writes, “New employees can follow standard operating procedures that are built into simulations, along with visual cues that help them learn while in the flow of work, instead of having to separate learning from practice.” Additionally, it could reduce safety drastically in areas like construction where risk of physical harm is always high.

The study concludes that “Once the initial benefits of spatial operations are underway in industrial settings, enterprises should be prepared: The natural evolution of spatial computing may radically change the way we interact with consumer and enterprise applications in the years to come.”

Leading companies like Apple are already working on spatial computing-focused headsets. Vision Pro, the company’s MR device, is likely to be released next year.

Anurag is working as a fundamental writer for The Coin Republic since 2021. He likes to exercise his curious muscles and research deep into a topic. Though he covers various aspects of the crypto industry, he is quite passionate about the Web3, NFTs, Gaming, and Metaverse, and envisions them as the future of the (digital) economy. A reader & writer at heart, he calls himself an “average guitar player” and a fun footballer.