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Enabling Technologies and Critical Applications of Metaverse

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Computing and Artificial Intelligence".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 January 2023) | Viewed by 21520

Special Issue Editors

Department of Computing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
Interests: distributed systems and blockchain; mobile edge computing; artificial intelligence of things
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Department of Petroleum Geology, China University of Petroleum, Beijing, China
Interests: fracture dynamics; oil and gas big data; blockchain technology and its application

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Guest Editor
School of Science, Computing and Engineering Technologies, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia
Interests: spam detection; software vulnerability detection; machine learning

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The term “metaverse” appeared for the first time in the science fiction Snow Crash, referring to a 3D virtual urban environment where users can build and trade virtual real estates. Recently, a number of metaverse projects have been launched, including Decentraland, Axie Infinity, and The Sandbox. The market value of each project is as high as billions of US dollars. Metaverse is expected to play a transformative role in gaming, social interaction, education, healthcare, etc. Despite the significance of metaverse, its underlying technologies are understudied, and its application is still limited in video games. There  is a critical need for researchers and practitioners to discuss the enabling technologies and explore the critical applications of metaverse. This Special Issue aims to collect the latest developments in metaverse, including studies on the killer applications and enabling technologies, such as virtual/augmented/mixed reality, blockchain, non-fungible tokens, smart contract, brain machine interfaces, haptic feedback unit, and human sensing. The potential topics include but are not limited to:

  • Non-fungible tokens and token economy for metaverse
  • Virtual/augmented/mixed reality for metaverse
  • Artificial intelligence for metaverse
  • Blockchain and decentralized networking for metaverse
  • Human sensing and immersive experiences for metaverse
  • Emerging applications of metaverse in education, healthcare, etc.

Dr. Shan Jiang
Dr. Zonghu Liao
Dr. Shigang Liu
Guest Editors

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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12 pages, 1617 KiB  
Article
Study of Social Presence While Interacting in Metaverse with an Augmented Avatar during Autonomous Driving
by Gheorghe Daniel Voinea, Florin Gîrbacia, Cristian Cezar Postelnicu, Mihai Duguleana, Csaba Antonya, Adrian Soica and Ruxandra-Cristina Stănescu
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(22), 11804; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122211804 - 20 Nov 2022
Cited by 31 | Viewed by 4772
Abstract
In this paper, we studied the effects of using Microsoft HoloLens 2 in a Metaverse-based collaborative mixed reality environment on the driver’s social presence while using an autonomous driving system. In (semi-) autonomous vehicles the driver is the system’s monitor, and the driving [...] Read more.
In this paper, we studied the effects of using Microsoft HoloLens 2 in a Metaverse-based collaborative mixed reality environment on the driver’s social presence while using an autonomous driving system. In (semi-) autonomous vehicles the driver is the system’s monitor, and the driving process becomes a secondary task. Our approach is motivated by the advent of Microsoft Mesh XR technology that enables immersion in multi-person, shared mixed reality environments. We conducted a user study comparing the effects on social presence in two scenarios: baseline and mixed reality collaboration. During the baseline condition, participants communicated and interacted with another person using Skype/Meet which was installed on a mobile tablet. In the second scenario the participants used the Microsoft Mesh application installed on HoloLens 2 to collaborate in a mixed reality environment where each user is represented by an augmented 3D avatar. During the experiment, the participant had to perform a social interaction tell-a-lie task and a remote collaborative tic-tac-toe game, while also monitoring the vehicle’s behavior. The social presence was measured using the Harms and Biocca questionnaire, one of the most widely used tools for evaluating the user’s experience. We found that there are significant statistical differences for Co-presence, Perceived Emotional Interdependence, and Perceived Behavioral Interdependence, and participants were able to easily interact with the avatar in the mixed reality scenario. The proposed study procedure could be taken further to assess the driver’s performance during handover procedures, especially when the autonomous driving system encounters a critical situation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Enabling Technologies and Critical Applications of Metaverse)
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Review

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23 pages, 1625 KiB  
Review
Cybersecurity in the AI-Based Metaverse: A Survey
by Mitra Pooyandeh, Ki-Jin Han and Insoo Sohn
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(24), 12993; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122412993 - 18 Dec 2022
Cited by 70 | Viewed by 15740
Abstract
The Metaverse is a multi-user virtual world that combines physical reality with digital virtual reality. The three basic technologies for building the Metaverse are immersive technologies, artificial intelligence, and blockchain. Companies are subsequently making significant investments into creating an artificially intelligent Metaverse, with [...] Read more.
The Metaverse is a multi-user virtual world that combines physical reality with digital virtual reality. The three basic technologies for building the Metaverse are immersive technologies, artificial intelligence, and blockchain. Companies are subsequently making significant investments into creating an artificially intelligent Metaverse, with the consequence that cybersecurity has become more crucial. As cybercrime increases exponentially, it is evident that a comprehensive study of Metaverse security based on artificial intelligence is lacking. A growing number of distributed denial-of-service attacks and theft of user identification information makes it necessary to conduct comprehensive and inclusive research in this field in order to identify the Metaverse’s vulnerabilities and weaknesses. This article provides a summary of existing research on AI-based Metaverse cybersecurity and discusses relevant security challenges. Based on the results, the issue of user identification plays a very important role in the presented works, for which biometric methods are the most commonly used. While the use of biometric data is considered the safest method, due to their uniqueness, they are also susceptible to misuse. A cyber-situation management system based on artificial intelligence should be able to analyze data of any volume with the help of algorithms. To prepare researchers who will pursue this topic in the future, this article provides a comprehensive summary of research on cybersecurity in the Metaverse based on artificial intelligence. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Enabling Technologies and Critical Applications of Metaverse)
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