Imagine you are having coffee with a friend in the park. She mentions a pair of sneakers she likes and suggests you might like them too. In an instant, a selection of sneakers flashes up into your peripheral vision. As the digital images float by, she details the style, allowing your AI assistant to fine-tune your selection. You see the sneakers she recommended but you don’t like some of the detailing. Your AI assistant copies them and open up your customizer.

With a simple swipe, you give your friend access and together you swap out the laces and tweak the color combination. With another gesture, you buy the sneakers — and purchase an NFT version to dress your holographic avatar. They’ll be delivered from the on-demand factory later in the week.

You say goodbye to your friend and tap your smart glasses to leave the park. But in fact, you never left your couch.

Welcome to the metaverse, a hybrid virtual-physical extension of our connected world. The metaverse uses augmented and mixed reality to create a 3D version of the internet.

Mixed reality will be increasingly accessible to businesses and consumers, transforming our lives over the next few years. We will move through these hybrid worlds with different experiences in different dimensions in a paradigm shift enabled by a tsunami of tech changes over the next decade.”

Previously, access to this world was restricted by the relatively high cost of entry and awkward, bulky interfaces that put off most consumers. While gamers have been early adopters and tolerated these shortcomings, they are still barriers to entry for many. The good news is that companies are working to eliminate the obstacles to mass market adoption. For example, Facebook’s Oculus Quest is establishing relatively affordable pricing. MetaVRse, a company with a mission to foster greater connectedness in the 3D internet world, provides a platform that makes it simpler to build coding-optional virtual experiences.

The most significant barrier remains the bulky hardware, but we can expect to see lighter, faster and smaller devices in the coming years.