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Monday 9 January 2023 BUSINESS
A12

CES 2023: Smelling, touching take

center stage in metaverse

By HALELUYA HADERO and
RIO YAMAT
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Is the
metaverse closer than we
think? It depends on who
you ask at CES, where
companies are showing off
innovations that could im-
merse us deeper into virtual
reality, otherwise known as
VR. The metaverse — es-
sentially a buzzword for
three-dimensional virtual
communities where people Attendees wear VR headsets while previewing the Caliverse
can meet, work and play Hyper-Realistic Metaverse experience at the Lotte booth during
— was a key theme during the CES tech show Friday, Jan. 6, 2023, in Las Vegas.
Associated Press
the four-day tech gather-
ing in Las Vegas that ends tainment, education, so- they find. Ozan Ozaskinli, a
Sunday. Taiwanese tech cial connection, and well- tech consultant who trav-
giant HTC unveiled a high- being," the company's CEO eled more than 29 hours
end VR headset that aims and co-founder Aaron Wis- from Istanbul to attend
to compete with market niewski said in a statement. CES, suited up with yellow
leader Meta, and a slew of "The quality of these experi- gloves and a black vest to
other companies and start- ences will be measured by test out a so-called haptics
ups touted augmented how immersive and emo- product, which relays sen-
reality glasses and sensory tionally engaging they are. sations through buzzes and
technologies that can help Scent imbues them with an vibrations and stimulates
users feel — and even smell unmatched power." our sense of touch.
— in a virtual environment. But more robust and immer- Ozaskinli was attempting
Among them, Vermont- sive uses of scent — and its to punch in a code on a
based OVR Technology close cousin, taste — are keypad that allowed him
showcased a headset still further away on the in- to pull a lever and unlock
containing a cartridge novation spectrum. Experts a box containing a shiny
with eight primary aromas say even VR technologies gemstone. But the expe-
that can be combined to that are more accessible rience was mostly a let-
create different scents. It's are in the early days of their down.
scheduled to be released development and too ex- "I think that's far from reality
later this year. pensive for many consum- right now," Ozaskinli said.
An earlier, business-fo- ers to purchase. The num- "But if I was considering it
cused version used primar- bers show there's waning to replace Zoom meetings,
ily for marketing fragrances interest. According to the why not? At least you can
and beauty products is in- research firm NPD Group, feel something."
tegrated into VR goggles sales of VR headsets, which Proponents say wide-
and allows users to smell found popular use in gam- spread adoption of vir-
anything from a romantic ing, declined by 2% last tual reality will ultimately
bed of roses to a marsh- year, a sour note for com- benefit different parts of
mallow roasting over a fire panies betting big on more society by essentially un-
at a campsite. adoption. Still, big compa- locking the ability to be
The company says it aims nies like Microsoft and Meta with anyone, anywhere at
to help consumers relax are investing billions. And any time. Though it's too
and is marketing the prod- many others are joining the early to know what these
uct, which comes with an race to grab some market technologies can do once
app, as a sort of digital spa share in supporting tech- they fully mature, compa-
mixed with Instagram. nologies, including wear- nies looking to achieve the
"We are entering an era in ables that replicate touch. most immersive experienc-
which extended reality will Customers, though, aren't es for users are welcoming
drive commerce, enter- always impressed by what them with open arms.
Aurora Townsend, the
chief marketing officer at
Flare, a company slated
to launch a VR dating app
called Planet Theta next
month, said her team is
building its app to incorpo-
rate more sensations like
touch once the technol-
ogy becomes more widely
available on the consumer
market.q