Seize the opportunity of the metaverse and shape the development of physical industries! Qingdao builds a leading domestic and internationally advanced virtual reality industry highland

Lou Hua, Chief Journalist of Fengfeng Finance

The metaverse is an important new carrier for the innovative development of the digital economy. As the core of the new round of Internet upheaval, the metaverse may reshape the industrial ecology, form a virtual world corresponding to the real world, and be an important force for future social change. The explosive experience of the audience at the exhibition also confirms the future of the industry.

On May 18th, the China International Consumer Electronics Expo and the Qingdao International Software Integration and Innovation Expo held parallel forums on the development of metaverse and virtual reality technology in Qingdao. The theme of this forum is "reshaping consumer life experience and activating the digital economy system", with over 200 participants including relevant leaders from various levels of regulatory departments, industry experts, and enterprise representatives.

What stage of development is the metaverse currently in, what are the remaining difficulties, and what are the development trends? How can Shandong and Qingdao seize the opportunity? The reporters conducted interviews one by one.

Digital person identification requires blockchain

What is the current development status of the metaverse and what are the pain points? Academician Rong Chunming of the Norwegian Academy of Engineering summarized the current situation and difficulties in realizing the value of digital assets based on virtual reality technology. He pointed out that the current digital asset technology system is preliminarily taking shape, but there are many difficulties in realizing the value of digital assets in data sharing, circulation, integration, and use. He also proposed a federated computing service platform framework based on blockchain and cloud computing, OpenIaC. In the future, it is hoped that more data platforms can be combined with OpenIaC to help digital assets achieve true value release.

The naked eye 3D show at the Electronic Expo attracted citizens to stop and take photos

Academician Rong Chunming's viewpoint has been recognized by Zhang Xiaojun, Chief Strategic Officer of Huawei Cloud Blockchain. "The metaverse itself is a big box, and there is no other technology to support it in the entire box. For example, blockchain needs to solve the identification of data identities in the metaverse." Zhang Xiaojun said, "The use of simulated human digital humans is currently the most popular application in the metaverse, and the use of human faces is copyrighted, Maintaining this copyright requires the application of blockchain. Blockchain can better assist the metaverse in building more value in future business models and achieving reasonable distribution of value.

In addition, the current metaverse has not yet truly achieved data connectivity and data interconnection. It is expected that there will be 5 years from 2025 to 2030 to interconnect some data of the metaverse.

If we call the year 2000 the PC Internet, 2010 the mobile Internet, and now the era of the metaverse, there are many definitions of the metaverse era. The first is 3D virtual numbers, and the second is immersive experiences, which must be interconnected with the real world. Jiang Yahong, a researcher at the Institute of Computer Innovation Technology at Zhejiang University, believes that in fact, many scenarios require their own digital avatars, Alternatively, digital humans can only achieve immersive experiences through software and hardware devices. Additionally, digital humans themselves can work and wear gloves to play basketball, mahjong, and shake hands in the metaverse.

Brain computer interface is in the development and experimental stage

What will happen to the current hottest AIGC empowering metaverse? In the opinion of Yin Zhi, the chief architect of the Metaverse in Shangtang City, the important embodiment of the creativity of the Metaverse belongs to AIGC. AIGC is the content created by AI, and your input can be in various forms, and your output can also be in various forms. The input can be sound, text, or image 3D. Your input can be text, and the output can also be text. Chapter is a textual AI.

What are the future trends in the development of the metaverse? The first key direction is new terminals. The biggest characteristic of the metaverse is that it is human-centered. There are three types of terminals in the metaverse, one is mainly PC and mobile applications, the other is the gradually emerging and large-scale virtual reality terminals, and finally the brain computer interface.

In recent years, the growth rate of mobile terminal shipments has gradually slowed down, coupled with limitations in immersive experience and interactivity. We believe that PC and mobile terminals are transitional terminals for the development of the metaverse. "Li Mowen, Deputy Secretary General of the Virtual Reality and Metaverse Industry Alliance, said that brain computer interfaces are relatively distant and are currently in the research and experimental stage. In the medium to long term, the focus is on terminals that focus on virtual reality, However, the relationship with mobile phones is not a complete replacement. In the future, the relationship between virtual reality terminals and mobile phones will be similar to the relationship between the front-end metaverse portal and the back-end support platform.

The second major direction for future development is new content, and the content of the metaverse has shown two major trends. One is the evolution of 2D content towards 3D content, and the other is the evolution from weak interaction to strong interaction. The characteristics of virtual and real integration and the depth of interaction are also not possessed by the current internet, and are unique key development areas of the metaverse. The third key direction is the new platform, moving from virtual to real and from real to virtual.

Seize the strategic commanding heights of the metaverse industry

Virtual reality is an important frontier direction of the new generation of information technology and a major frontier field of the digital economy, with broad application space and unlimited future prospects. The country attaches great importance to the development of the virtual reality industry. Starting from 2021, the virtual reality and augmented reality industries have been listed as key industries in the digital economy.

The reporter saw at the exhibition site that whether it is the virtual display industry park or the exhibition areas of Goethe, Jindong, Dapeng, etc., there is an endless stream of visitors waiting to experience. The audience experiences the charm of games, cultural tourism, industrial and other scenes through interaction, indicating that future consumption trends will definitely promote the development of the industry.

In November 2022, the five national ministries and commissions jointly issued the "Action Plan for the Integration and Development of Virtual Reality and Industry Applications", which clearly pointed out that virtual reality is an important cutting-edge direction of the new generation of information technology. It proposes to break through key technologies, optimize terminal products, stimulate service innovation, promote industry applications, and create a new pattern of industrial development where technology, product services, and applications flourish together. Various regions compete on this track.

Shandong Province seizes the new opportunities of the new generation of technological revolution and accelerated industrial transformation, attaches great importance to the development of the virtual reality industry, and has issued a three-year action plan to promote high-quality development of the virtual reality industry in Shandong Province. A series of supporting policies have created a number of industry applications and formed a sound development ecology. As of now, Shandong Province has basically formed a 1+4+N regional reality with Qingdao as the center, Jinan, Weifang, Yantai, and Weihai interconnected, and other cities collaborating. The next step is for Shandong Province to strengthen and expand virtual reality, providing favorable support for the construction of a modern and strong province in the new era.

As a leading area of virtual reality in Shandong Province, Qingdao began laying out the virtual reality track in 2016 and proposed the development goal of becoming the capital of China's virtual reality industry. After six or seven years of development, Qingdao has formed a first-class virtual reality industry ecosystem, bringing together a group of leading enterprises such as Goethe and PICO to have international influence in terminal manufacturing. At the same time, Qingdao's virtual reality industry has outstanding scientific and technological innovation capabilities, obvious talent advantages, and a complete support system, which has also set a benchmark and created a model for the entire province.

As an industrial chain created by Qingdao, the path has been clear, and the entire chain has been developed. Strengthening the magnetic field role of professional parks, relying on leading enterprises such as Togore, we will accelerate the construction of a hardware and software content application industrial chain and a full industrial chain system, cultivating and optimizing the industrial ecology. Open all scenarios, promote the deep integration of the metaverse and virtual reality industries with advanced manufacturing, smart cities, healthcare and other fields, create more typical application scenarios, and empower thousands of industries.

Full factor supply, strengthening the aggregation and supply of resources such as land, capital, technology, etc., accurately introducing innovative teams and top talents, providing high-quality and efficient services and a first-class business environment for enterprise development. Fully cooperate, support enterprises and university research institutes, and promote collaborative innovation between industry, academia, and research,.

We look forward to Qingdao making good use of its existing industrial foundation, making further efforts to expand its advantages, promoting resource accumulation, further strengthening and strengthening the virtual reality industry, promoting the innovative development of Qingdao's metaverse industry, seizing the strategic commanding heights of the metaverse industry, accelerating the construction of a domestically leading and internationally advanced virtual reality industry highland, and shaping new advantages in the development of the physical industry.