CES 2023: These companies are bringing smell, touch to the metaverse

Is the Metaverse closer than we think?

It depends on who you ask at CES, where companies are showing off innovations that could take us deeper into virtual reality, aka VR.

The Metaverse — essentially a catchphrase for three-dimensional virtual communities where people can meet, work and play — was a key theme during the four-day Las Vegas tech gathering, which ends Sunday.

Taiwanese tech giant HTC has unveiled a high-end VR Headset, which aims to compete with market leader Meta, and a number of other companies and startups have touted augmented reality glasses and sensory technology that can help users feel — and even smell — in a virtual environment.

Among them, Vermont-based company OVR Technology presented a headset containing a cartridge with eight primary aromas that can be combined to create different scents. It is scheduled to be released later this year.

An earlier, business-focused version, primarily used to market fragrance and beauty products, is integrated with VR goggles and allows users to smell everything from a romantic bed of roses to a marshmallow falling over a campfire is roasted.

The company wants to help consumers relax and is marketing the product, which comes with an app, as a kind of digital spa mixed with Instagram.

“We are entering an era where augmented reality will drive commerce, entertainment, education, social connections and well-being,” the company’s CEO and co-founder Aaron Wisniewski said in a statement. “The quality of these experiences is measured by how immersive and emotionally engaging they are. Fragrance fills her with an unsurpassed power.”

But more robust and inclusive uses of scent – and its close cousin, taste – are further down the innovation spectrum. Experts say that even more accessible VR technologies are still in their infancy and are too expensive for many consumers to purchase.

The numbers show that interest is waning. According to research firm NPD Group, sales of VR headsets, which have been popular with games, fell 2 percent last year, which is a bad mark for companies that are big on adoption.

Still, big companies like Microsoft and Meta are investing billions. And many others are joining the race to gain market share in assistive technologies, including wearables that replicate touch.

However, customers are not always impressed with what they find. Ozan Ozaskinli, a technical advisor who traveled more than 29 hours from Istanbul to attend CESdressed in yellow gloves and a black vest to test a so-called haptic product that transmits sensations through buzzing and vibrations, stimulating our sense of touch.

Ozaskinli attempted to enter a code on a keyboard that would allow him to pull a lever and open a chest containing a shiny gem. But the experience was mostly a disappointment.

“I think that’s far from reality at the moment,” Ozaskinli said. “But if I’m thinking about replacing Zoom meetings, why not? At least you feel something.”

Proponents say the widespread adoption of virtual reality will eventually benefit various sections of society, essentially unlocking the ability to be with anyone, anywhere, anytime. While it’s too early to know what these technologies will be able to do once they’re fully mature, organizations are welcoming them with open arms when they’re looking for the most immersive experiences for users.

Aurora Townsend, chief marketing officer at Flare, a company that plans to launch a VR dating app called Planet Theta next month, said her team is building its app to incorporate more sensations, such as touch, as the technology picks up becomes more widely available to the consumer market.

“Being able to feel the ground when you’re walking with your partner, or to hold their hands while you’re doing that… the subtle way we engage people will change once haptic technology is fully in place.” into VR,” Townsend said.

Still, it’s unlikely that many of these products will see widespread use, even in games, in the next few years, said Matthew Ball, a Metaverse expert. Instead, he said, adoption pioneers are likely to be areas with higher budgets and more precise requirements, such as bomb squads that use haptics and virtual reality to help with their work, and others in the medical field.

In 2021, neurosurgeons at Johns Hopkins said they used augmented reality to perform spinal fusion surgery and remove a cancerous tumor from a patient’s spine.

And optical technology from Lumus, an Israeli company that makes AR goggles, is already being used by underwater welders, fighter pilots and surgeons who want to monitor a patient’s vital signs or MRI scans during a procedure without having to look at multiple screens, said David Goldman, the company’s vice president of marketing.

Meanwhile, Xander, a Boston-based startup that makes smart glasses that display real-time closed captions of in-person conversations for people with hearing loss, will start a pilot program with the US Department of Veterans Affairs next month to test some of the technology, Alex Westner said , co-founder and CEO of the company. He said the agency will allow veterans who have appointments because of hearing loss or other audio issues to try the glasses at some of its clinics. And if things go well, the agency is likely to become a client, Westner said.

Elsewhere, major companies from Walmart to Nike have launched various initiatives in virtual reality. However, it’s unclear how much they can benefit in the early stages of the technology. Consulting firm McKinsey says the Metaverse could bring in as much as $5 trillion by 2030. But outside of gaming, much of today’s VR use remains a rather marginal pleasure, said Michael Kleeman, technology strategist and visiting scholar at the University of California San Diego.

“If people are promoting it, they have to respond – where’s the value in that? Where’s the profit? Not what’s fun, what’s cute, and what’s interesting.”