Metaverse gets touch of reality at Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas
A jacket equipped with sensors that let wearers feel hugs or even punches in virtual reality was among the innovations giving the metaverse a more realistic edge at the Consumer Electronics Show. "What is the metaverse if you can't feel it?" asked Jose Fuertes, founder of the Spain-based startup Owo, which made the jacket. "It's just avatars."
The "metaverse" -- a parallel universe where human, augmented and virtual realities are supposed to merge -- was a hot theme at the annual gadget extravaganza in Las Vegas, with startups showing off computers, headsets and other gear promising to enhance time spent in virtual worlds.
Owo touts its jacket as able to immerse wearers, whether in video games or in the metaverse, letting them feel "a gunshot, the wind, someone grabbing your arm and even a hug from a loved one."
The tight-fitting jacket features bands that stick to the skin, with sensors that sync to a mobile application. Before donning a virtual reality (VR) headset, the wearer can choose the intensity of each sensation.
"Our mission is to turn the virtual into reality with a second skin; to add the sense of touch in the metaverse or video games," Fuertes said as AFP tried out the jacket.
The Owo garb -- to be priced less than $450 when it hits the market late this year -- brings to mind the sci-fi novel-turned-film "Ready Player One," in which people in a dystopian world live alternate lives in a virtual universe.
The science fiction future seems distant given a lack of full body suits and comfortable headsets for simulated experiences, or ubiquitous high-speed internet service to handle such rich data streams.
Nonetheless, the metaverse has become a popular topic since being endorsed by Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg so
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