CEO Patrick Cozzi, his Philadelphia-based software company Cesium presents itself as a major player in the "metaverse" process, defining what a metave
(TNS) - Meta, a company known as Facebook, received a lot of attention when it renamed itself to show its focus on "metaverse." But Meta is not the only solid build in the digital world that could be the next big thing on the internet. One is based here in Philadelphia.
Cesium, a software company, provides a platform for creating applications using three-dimensional location data. For example, the construction machinery giant Komatsu uses the Cesium platform to build digital twins for construction sites to track safety and progress. Clients can use drones and rovers to collect location data to create the latest models using the Cesium platform.
CEO Patrick Cozzi said his company is actively involved in building metaverse and is one of the strongest advocates for openness and collaboration, so that users can manage their data and stream it from one metaverse to another. The Center City-based company was established in Exton-based Analytical Graphics in 2019. It now has about 40 employees and customers in the energy, defense and real estate industries.
Cozzi spoke to The Inquirer to explain what a metaverse is and why it is important. The conversation is slightly organized to make it longer and clearer.
I think if you ask 10 different people, you will get 10 different answers and you will get 80% discrepancy. Just like if 30 years ago you asked someone what the internet is, right? Because we are in a very exciting time in the metals where it is starting to happen. An easy way to think about metaverse is the future of Internet-based 3D. So today, we see the Internet with text, images, sound, video. However, the following type of media is full, immersive 3D - like today [video] games with Fortnite and Roblox - where instead of being in this video chat, we can immerse ourselves in the same space and be able to communicate. .
Today you can access the Internet from your phone, from a tablet, using a portable computer. With metaverse, you will be able to access it from virtual reality (VR), right? So [headset] over your eyes and you look around and you are in it fully. You will also be able to access it from augmented reality (AR) wearable items. So like the mirrors you and I are currently wearing we will be able to cover the visible knowledge of the physical world. And you will be able to access it in a game or computer console as we do today.
So people look at something like Fortnite and think, "That's a game." However, the future stage is much more than a game, like these [real community] concerts. The biggest challenge right now is, how do you increase the number of people at one time who can participate in that concert in one visible place? But anything from visual-focused meetings, to concerts, games, to business use situations, such as exploring almost a building site to [military] use-defense situations such as planning.
Like in the early days of the internet, when a lot of companies were running and became “dot-coms” and became online companies, I think you would see a lot of companies become flexible companies or have flexibility strategies. And now you’re starting to see that a lot about companies like Nike who want their products to be displayed on the metaverse, or we’ve seen a Ferrari car in Fortnite. So I think there will be a lot of business opportunities, especially in terms of allowing the creator economy.
If you look at the type of online business models over time, certainly advertising has become very popular. Looking ahead to the metaverse, I think advertising may be part of it but I don’t think it will be a leading model. We want to empower creators, whether those software developers build the experience, whether people create levels in the game, or people build digital assets, like an avatar, like a virtual car. And those people who own a market or sell that content, and you own that content.
Somehow, the metaverse is here today with things like Minecraft, Fortnite and Roblox. And somehow, that AR wears on a contact lens may not work for many years. Many experts today say that the idea we talked about was probably 10 years old.
One way is to use our technology platform to empower these great real-world models. The whole city is matched to every brick and every kind of grass, and the ability to deliver that successfully to all metaverses in a way called broadcasting. Just as you are streaming a video of Netflix or YouTube, we allow the streaming of these vast digital worlds. And then another thing we are trying to contribute to metaverse is awareness and support to ensure it is open and collaborative so you can own your content and be able to deliver your content to a different metaverse experience.
Just as the Internet was not built by one company or one organization, metaverse - which is a much bigger concept than the Internet is today - no single company will build that. And we need big organizations to work together to accomplish this task. Therefore, we need a partnership between their different offerings. So it is you, as the user and the participant, do not want to be locked in a walled garden. You want to be your own owner, you want to be the owner of your digital assets, and you want to be able to spend your time and content on what you do.
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