Dubai Municipality will work with private sector companies and investors to create a futuristic, human-centered version of the city that capitalizes on opportunities thrown up by the metaverse, according to Dawood Abdul Rahman Al Hajri, Director-General of Dubai Municipality.
Dawood Abdul Rahman Al Hajri, Director-General of Dubai Municipality, said this.
The metaverse is a virtual-reality space where users interact with computer-generated environments and other users.
At its broadest, it combines elements of social media, augmented reality, virtual reality, video games, cryptocurrencies, and other advanced technologies.
As the next big market opportunity, the metaverse could provide nearly US$800 billion in revenue by 2024, Bloomberg Intelligence estimates show.
Al Hajri introduced the One Human Reality concept to delegates during a plenary session, entitled ‘Operating Cities of Tomorrow’.
The session was held as a part of the World Government Summit 2022 (WGS2022), taking place at Expo 2020 Dubai.
“One Human Reality is the meeting point or integration between two worlds: the metaverse and the world we are currently living in together,” Al Hajri said at the session .
“The metaverse today has become closer to reality than we could have imagined,” Al Hajri said.
Giving an example of such a city, he said, “Residents could be joined by friends in other parts of the world in the form of avatars on a virtual walk through a city park.”
“Similarly, simulated time travel to historic moments, or immersive tours of landmark destinations may be other metaverse applications,” he said.
Such futuristic use cases would require portals in public spaces and city centers, Al Hajri said.
He added that governments and cities should invest in building this infrastructure as soon as possible.
Dubai Municipality is expected to launch a program called One Human Reality Talks, aimed at bringing together companies and investors to develop and share this new reality.
It will include dialogues with experts, insights, cooperative use cases, knowledge sharing, and more.