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Defining an Interaction of the Future

How might the Metaverse evolve in the future? What impact will the Metaverse have on physical spaces? And, most importantly, how will it shape our daily lives? The Portal mirror and NFT Bubble had to seamlessly integrate physical and virtual realities, allowing us to exist in both worlds simultaneously, but before we could design the hardware, we had to define the interaction of the function. What does a VR mirror even do?

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Meta vs. Metaphysical: A Seamless Transition

Imagine waking up and moving through your typical morning routine. You head to your central hub that houses the Portal; rather than seeing your reflection, you see your avatar. As you pull your VR headset down over your eyes, your view of the world around you smoothly transitions—you are now standing in the digital incarnation of your living room looking at a live video feed of your real-world self looking back at you through the portal. You feel the sensation of swapping places with your avatar. A seamless transition of two worlds, merged together by a high tech mirror that lives in your home.

The Merging of Worlds

Any physical objects in your real-life room would be mapped out and represented in your virtual homeroom. This will allow you to move around freely with your VR headset and not worry about bumping into your surroundings. As you turn away from the Portal, you see your Peloton. Upon climbing onto the Peloton, the entire scene evaporates, and everything around you changes: you are now on a mountain trail, cycling with friends from around the world, fully immersed in a virtual world from the comfort of your own home.

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Making a Foreign Interaction Familiar

By bringing something physical into the home you’re giving that something a physical identity- a bridge to the virtual and physical worlds. Where the headset is a component that helps with visual and auditory senses, having a physical product literally immerses you further into that world and makes it much more of an experience as a whole. Portal is a smart mirror that gives you multiple access and touch points that bridge you further into virtual reality.

The Form Informs

We designed Portal to feel like a familiar form. A mirror is a recognizable object found in almost everyones homes and already had set interactions that range from checking your outfit, watching yourself as you brush your teeth, or even examining an injury. As humans, we want to get feedback on who we are and what we're experiencing in the moment, Portal adds an extra layer to this consciousness.

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Immersing Ourselves into the Metaverse

The more we spend time in the Metaverse, the more likely we will develop a personal connection with what we are creating, purchasing, and ultimately interacting with on a greater scale. We envision wanting to hold on to those connections or having a way to integrate our personal and virtual lives: this is where our idea of a personalized NFT Bubble comes into play.

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3D Projection

With the advancement of 3D projection technology, we predict it will become a widely used and accessible technology in the near future. The NFT Bubble utilizes this advanced form of visualization so you can keep your most “prized Metaverse possessions” in your physical room.Soon we will be able to see more than just the flat images on our computer and phone screens, and possibly even interact with the objects on a much more intimate level.

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Immersing More Than Just Our Visual Senses

Imagine being able to purchase an NFT that reminds you of home or a cultural tradition- perhaps it's your favorite dish that your grandmother would cook for you when you were sick or a holiday meal that you only had once a year. What if you could smell the delicious aromas of the food, hear the song your grandmother would hum as she was in the kitchen, or hear the background gossip of your aunts and uncles? With the rapid advancement of VR, 3D displays, and other integrated technologies we may be able to keep 3-dimensional objects in this little compartment and even interact with them via hand and motion tracking.

In the Future

It's hard to predict exactly what will happen until we reach that point—it could be a complete disruption of culture, or it could just be the next step in humankind's evolution. But whatever happens, we believe the Metaverse will open many new opportunities and redefine people's daily routines and interactions. The XOver concept project is an ambitious and exciting venture that has the potential to change the way we interact with the physical world and digital spaces. This new technology will allow us to truly experience digital life as our own, which has been one of the most intriguing things about this project. By making physical and digital interactions more seamless, we can create a more immersive and engaging experience for all.

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