Connected Spaces: what are they and how are they shaping the spatial internet?
Connected Spaces merge the physical and digital worlds to create a better human experience. They are the building blocks of the 3D spatial internet.
Today, when you visit a web page on your laptop, mobile, or desktop computer, it looks and behaves the same no matter how or where you’re accessing it. There is a consistent user experience. This is made possible by adhering to web standards and interoperability across platforms.
Interoperability is vital for the next internet too. The web of tomorrow will be a series of connected 3D spaces filled with extraordinary experiences. But achieving that future vision is hard. Currently, anyone building spatial experiences has to develop custom solutions for each platform and then string them together with a hodgepodge of cloud services. It sucks.
As we wait for the fully-fledged spatial internet to arrive, we need a better way of uniting the physical and digital. We see these bridging blocks as “Connected Spaces”.
Let’s dig in a little more.
What are Connected Spaces and why are they important?
Right now we live in two disconnected worlds: a 3D physical world (concerts, museums, offices) and a flat 2D digital one, (websites, apps, videos). Living in two different worlds like this is unnatural to us – we’re spatial creatures – we understand information and enjoy experiences much better when they interact with us and our environment, rather than being flat.
While it will take a little time, the transition from a 2D web to a 3D web is happening, we’re moving from pages to spaces. And we believe the spaces of the next web will exist anywhere between physical and digital worlds.
The spaces of the next internet will bring people together to interact in new ways and discover next-level experiences. And when you’re not beholden to the law of physics, anything is possible and it’s that creative freedom that allows the magic to happen.
Let’s take the Dubai Expo as an example. We helped create the world’s largest digital twin of the 4 km2 site, with vast amounts of digital content that both onsite and remote visitors could experience at the same time. We aimed to give the physical visitors a little of the “superpowers” that they get inside games, and give the virtual visitors a little of the reality of being “in a space.”
This Connected Space was packed with enriching experiences. Users could discover over 500+ educational points of interest, encounter magical creatures and embark on journeys with characters themed around space exploration, art and design, social innovation, and more. Users could also collect rewards leading to Seeds of Change that could be donated to real-world causes.
By making the experience available to visitors both on-site in Dubai and around the world, in an engaging and spatial context, we hope it serves as an example of what the future offers to unite people and places in a better way.
How can Connected Spaces be used?
Just as someone in the 1960s wouldn’t be able to fully comprehend the internet of today, it can be difficult to truly get your head around what the future internet will be. So here are some of the ways Connected Spaces could be utilized:
Public spaces.
Imagine walking into a museum or science center, and seeing a physical exhibit come to life through the addition of digital layers of content that speak uniquely to various ages, nationalities, and interest groups. Imagine the same exhibit accessible to visitors both on and off-site. Rather than having to stay behind the velvet rope at your favorite museum, you can engage and interact with the exhibit in ways that would previously be impossible, with the technology you already own, like a mobile phone.
Live events, concerts, and conferences.
While live events have always brought communities together physically to create shared memories, forge social bonds, and spread ideas – emergent technologies have made interactive content and immersive digital participation possible from anywhere. If you are an event organizer, you can expand the reach of live events with a digital twin that delivers a virtual version of the live experience to remote attendees. And for those who are there in person, digital layers can be placed over reality to add exclusive content and experiences.
Retail e-commerce.
If you have a small business you want to grow, you could create a 3D space that embodies your brand – from a traditional storefront to a fantastical world – with or without a physical space as a foundation. You can break free of the shackles of physical retail spaces and place products in their proper context.
It should be easy for everyone to navigate between Connected Spaces, and in between the physical and digital worlds, as easy as it is to open a web page and close it again. That’s why we’ve open-sourced our Connected Spaces Platform (CSP). An SDK that provides developers across a range of languages and platforms with a means to build interoperable, cross-reality, multi-user applications. We’re also working on making it easier for anyone, anywhere to build Connected Spaces, more on that soon!
