Somnium Space Saturday disco night was fun. You want to explore other use cases of your brand new VR headset. What else can you do in the metaverse?

I am going to present some of the possible virtual reality use cases that are still not explored.

“Study with me” videos

In case you do not know what that is, these are basically youtube videos in which the content creator is studying for several hours. and They are filming their desk, their view (they are somehow always rich and have a nice view in a metropolitan city), their flat (with Pinterest designs), sometimes themselves, sometimes there is music involved. So the idea is simple. Some people enjoy studying with others but you may not have an extra desk to invite a friend, there might be no libraries or cafes in your area, or they might be outright closed, guess why? Here comes the study with me videos into play, filling this gap. My guess is that these types of content creators will soon start to create this content using extended reality, specifically AR and VR. Because why not? The whole idea is feeling like studying with someone.

Meditation

There are meditation/mindfulness retreat centers around the globe. For those who are unfamiliar, a retreat center is typically for people who live in urban environments and are charged with lots of negative energy because of pollution, stress, commuting, and so on. People go to retreat centers as a type of holiday, they leave their phones behind and eat organic vegan food meditate, and read books all day. The downside is these retreat centers are quite expensive since they target rich urban professionals as a consumer group. I think it is possible to create a retreat center metaverse with a VR headset. Yes, it may not be as good as living in a forest for days, but those who cannot access such an experience will definitely benefit. Also for your casual meditation routine, this can help. I am guessing your house does not look like the following photos. Set and setting are important and we simply do not have enough square meters to turn our room into a Buddhist temple.

Simulating psychedelic experiences

People report auditory and visual alterations under the effect of psychedelics. Mixed reality devices can provide a similar experience non-invasively, or at least let you take the gist of it.

Remember, mixed reality is an augmented reality on steroids. So the physical reality is still there but these glasses let you interact with digital overlay and objects, I am guessing they can also play with the brightness and make the furniture vibrate subtly. People, under the effect of psychedelics, report the scary mirror phenomenon, which can also be replicated via a mixed reality device. VR solutions can also provide rich visual alteration.

Severe hospitalization

Another potential benefit is the use of VR by severely hospitalized patients. They have limited access to social life and outdoors but the metaverse can help them socialize and experience social contact to some extent. When people talk about metaverse making us less social and sedentary, they do not take into account people who do not have the same access to some other people. Yes, the real thing cannot be substituted I agree, but I am sure it is better than being bound to your bed with a tiny 2D screen with text and images.

Events

Finally, a little more obvious use case is using metaverse for events. This can be concerts, sports events, talks, exhibitions, conferences, etc. Before c19 people used to travel overseas for such events but such excursions are not environmentally friendly, accessible for everyone due to visa restrictions, nor financially feasible. Although I admit not everyone has access to internet, you could buy an android phone for 50€ and a data package for relatively cheap. If you are not from a developed country your passport, and financial status will cause you to have limited access to such events. In my opinion, c19 forced people to offer their content, and events online, so that it became much more democratized. So my point is, people from underdeveloped countries can benefit a lot from such a shift to online exhibitions, meetings, classes, etc.