A better user experience… And more data to spare. An analysis of the patents filed by Meta, the parent company of Facebook published this Tuesday in the Financial Times reveals the first clues to the possible applications of the “metaverse”, a new immersive interface that the Californian firm is trying to build.
Eyelash movements, nose scratching, gaze and contractions of the muscles of the face, the company could take a step forward in the collection of data to erect a virtual environment in which Internet users could evolve by controlling avatars, whereas currently the web can be consulted in 2D, mainly through texts and videos.
Screened by the Financial Times, some patents indicate that Meta could collect biometric data, thanks to cameras and motion sensors placed inside virtual reality helmets and will thus be able to report our emotions live in the metaverse, by the through realistic avatars. Body movements will also be scrutinized.
Our measurements… resold?
Essential to the user experience promised in the metaverse, which should make current web browsing outdated in a few years, this data could also be resold to third-party companies, which could target their advertisements according to our measurements and our emotional state, while the metaverse also wants a place of purchases and commerce, with shops, concerts, virtual events
If they are not constitutive of the final result, the patents filed by the parent company of Facebook mark one more step in its race to give itself this new navigation system, dreamed up in Silicon Valley which finds that scrolling is obsolete. . In 2014, the Facebook group bought Oculus, a manufacturer of virtual reality headsets, a tool that could allow you to evolve in the virtual universe thus offered.
In October 2021, Facebook announced the creation of 10,000 new highly skilled jobs in Europe with a view to building the metaverse. Finally, a sign of the company’s determination to make web interfaces and the experience of social networks more immersive, on October 28 Mark Zuckerberg announced that his company would henceforth be called Meta.