Metaverse Memos #1
Briefings from academia
Metaverse Memos is an occasional series offering a curated glimpse into compelling perspectives on the metaverse.
The article "The Metaverse: Not a New Frontier for Crime" by Angus McKenzie Marshall & Brian Charles Tompsett explores the implications of the metaverse for criminal and forensic investigation. The metaverse is described as an evolutionary step, not a radical shift, in online experiences. The authors draw parallels between traditional internet-enabled crimes and those potentially arising in the metaverse. A key concern highlighted is the use of digital twins, where criminals could mimic and modify behavior to interact realistically with targets. This advanced interaction might snare individuals into becoming either victims or unwitting accomplices in criminal activities.
Fraud conducted via digital twins is a significant area for concern and identifying safeguards.
Marshall, Angus McKenzie, and Brian Charles Tompsett. "The metaverse—Not a new frontier for crime." Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Forensic Science (2023): e1505. https://wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wfs2.1505 open access.
The article "Interaction in Metaverse: A Survey" outlines major technologies and research for interaction paradigms in the context of human-computer interaction (HCI). As I read the article, several questions and thoughts came to mind:
What does it mean when a device can detect a person’s emotions and perceive intentions?
What is miscommunication in an AI-enabled environment? Humans are really bad at perceiving the emotions and intentions of others.
Future devices also will have a lot of data about the user, e.g., interests, spending habits, living conditions. How is that data integrated with sensory data to influence actions?
Trust is a difficult state to achieve between people. What does trust look like in our future digital world? Will we trust our digital companions more than we trust our colleagues, neighbors, friends?
Different interaction paradigms have the same conceptual steps. Here I quote directly from the article:
Identification: Verify the user’s identity based on biometrics to ensure that the corresponding interaction effects are provided based on the user personas.
Signal acquisition: Collecting signals from different parts of the body with sensors.
Signal integration: Integrate signals and remove redundant signals to form a global signal.
Process: Infer user interaction intent based on integrated global signals.
Task execution: Sends the user’s interactive commands to the application for execution.
Feedback: Provide the execution result to the user, indicating the completion of the interactive command.
Lin, Hong, Zirun Gan, Wensheng Gan, Zhenlian Qi, Yuehua Wang, and Philip S. Yu. "Interaction in Metaverse: A Survey." arXiv preprint arXiv:2310.13699 (2023).
