IBM Spatial & Metaverse concept by Karthick Krishnan, Executive Architect, IBM

1. 15 August
2022
Spatial &
Metaverse
Leading the
Immersive
Enterprise

2. 3
Metaverse
Consensus
Spatial &
Metaverse
15 August
2022
Crafting a common definition

3. Metaverse
Tech A Tech B
Tech C
Tech A + Tech B + Tech C != Metaverse
4
Behind the
Metaverse
Evangelists will tell you that the Metaverse is a digital
unification of immersive worlds, offering persistent 3D
experiences, powered by the blockchain, decentralized
and democratized for all but the details are vague and
suspicious.
Here’s why.
Technology A + Technology B = 1 Metaverse.
The Metaverse isn’t even about one technology or even a
group of technologies.
It’s a promise to build on a new set of values.
Spatial &
Metaverse
15 August
2022

4. 5
New Internet
New Values
Spatial &
Metaverse
15 August
2022
Modified from Avi Bar-Zeev
Beyond Meta: The Seven Verses
*
*
Connections
Commerce
Consent
Collaboration
Community
Copresence
Coreality
Connections
The need for persistent multi-channel experiences.
Commerce
The need for communities to fairly earn revenue.
Consent
The need for control, privacy, & digital rights.
Collaboration
The need for interaction, voice, and co-creation.
Community
The need for tribes, friendship, and identity at scale.
Copresence
The need for feeling in a place and/or with people.

5. Metaverse
elements
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Spatial &
Metaverse
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2022
Avatars
Social Acceptance Security & Privacy Trust & Accountability
Content Creation Virtual Economy
The Metaverse
User Interactivity
Computer Vision
Edge / Cloud
Network
Hardware Infrastructure
AI & Blockchain Robotics / IoT
Extended Reality
Technology
Values
Immersion
Navigate 3D environments on
mobile, desktop, VR, MR & AR
using natural user interactions.
Persistence
Digital identity’s public actions
affect shared worlds and users.
They are never off or reset.
Communities
Shared spaces, worlds, events
& locations encourage, content,
collaboration and co-creation.
Decentralization
The metaverse isn’t owned by
any one company or group.
Ex: Blockchain, Web3
Virtual Economy
Defined by a P2P economy,
digital goods, exchanges, and
‘play to earn’ gamification
Interoperability
Technical standards, formats,
interfaces, and protocols for
cross-world asset sharing

6. A tale of two
Metaverses
The Metaverse is primarily experienced in two ways.
The first is entirely online and digital. It comprises virtual
synchronous worlds that can be consumed in virtual reality or
on mobile devices and desktop computers.
The other type of experience uses Augmented or Mixed Reality
with mobile devices and headsets to overlay real-time 3D on
the physical real world, often with mapped spatial coordinates.
Meeting in the middle
Despite what many report, companies providing services
focused on VR will eventually focus on AR and vice versa,
creating a seamless Metaverse experience across all hardware.
Spatial &
Metaverse
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2022
13
Online & Virtual
Geo & Augmented

7. 14
Spatial &
Metaverse
15 August
2022
Level 0 Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
Spatial
Metaphors
2D Pages,
Web of Links
2.5D / Parallax,
Isolated 3D Worlds
Connected
Virtual Worlds
Consolidated
Universe Map
AR, IoT,
Real World Mixed
AR = VR,
Any interface
People &
Avatars
Cursors, Names,
Icons
Stylized Avatars,
Virtual Actors
Portable ID
Early Telepresence
Full Telepresence,
Full-range Avatars
Scaled Holographic
Presence
AI
Digital Twins
Artifacts &
Interactions
Text, Photos,
Videos
Virtual Clothing &
Accessories
Portable Assets,
NFTs, DAO
Remixed Assets,
Intuition Based Content
AI Creation
Assistance
Holodeck-like
Post-semantic web
Context &
Privacy
Cookies, Web Bugs,
Global Tracking
Do Not Track, VPN,
Cloaked IDs
Portable
Permissions
Consensual
Environments
Context
Based Discovery
AI
Shield
Monetization
Targeted
Advertising
Creator
Economies
Distributed
Ownership
Distributed
Authorship
Some
Creatorship
Mostly
Creatorship
We are here
Capabilities
*
An evolving
journey
Building the Metaverse will be an interactive
process. We are a few steps in but far away
from the currently perceived end state.
Spatial &
Metaverse

8. IBM’s history in
the Metaverse
Building a foundation for the immersive enterprise.
Since 2004, IBM has been involved with the creation
of virtual worlds & real-time 3D in the enterprise.
These early efforts involved, partnering with Second
Life, creating our own virtual world platform, and
creating server architecture to support the future of
shared virtual experiences.
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Spatial &
Metaverse
15 August
2022
Spatial
& XR
Spatial
& XR
3
We’ve been
doing this
since 2006
Spatial
& XR
Spatial
& XR
3
We’ve been
doing this
since 2006

9. 27
Metaverse
benefits
Spatial &
Metaverse
15 August
2022
The Metaverse offers consumers and businesses
enhanced experiences and opportunities that would
be difficult or impossible to achieve otherwise.
Boosting Business
• Connected Store
• Remote Assist
• Field Service
• Endless Aisle Retail
• Optimized Processes
• 1:1 Customer Interaction
• Alternative Financing
• Error Reduction
Health / Self
Community
Work
Entertainment
Home
Immersive
Gaming
Customer Support
Social Commerce
Hands-on Education
Virtual Travel
Digital Venues
Collaborative Meetings
Exercise
Remote Wellness
3D Healthcare
Physical Therapy
Virtual
Showroom
Immersive
Shopping
3D Try Before
You Buy
Sustainability
World
Exploration
Creator Tools
Virtual
Concerts
Real-time
Sports
Interactive
Theater
User
• Enhanced Brand Recognition
• Hyper-personalized Analytics
• Digital Twin for Assets
• Immersive Commerce
• Digital-first Products
• New Business Models
• Virtual-only Products
• Presence Driven Training
A few example areas
where consumers
may benefit
User Benefits

10. 44
Spatial &
Metaverse
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2022
IBM & the Metaverse share
values & technology
Cloud Pak
transparent
headless
hybrid
Hybrid Cloud
Blockchain
AI Driven
Supply Chain
Security
Red Hat
Digital Twin
iX Experience
Orchestrator
Watson Assistant
IBM Z
IBM Analytics
Spatial & XR
Metaverse
+

11. 45
Spatial &
Metaverse
15 August
2022
Applications
Ecosystem approach
Traditional
Channels
Meta Assist
APP
Meta Twins
APP
Meta Branch
APP
Meta Showcase
APP
Meta Workplace
APP
Meta Commerce
APP
Contact
Messaging
Physical Store
Mobile
Web
Metaverse
Channels
Altspace VR
Roblox
Horizon
The Sandbox
Decentraland
Social
Channels
Spatial
SnapChat
WeChat
Whatsapp
Instagram
API & Experience Orchestration
Experience Mesh
Miraki
Marketplace
Intelligent
Workflows
Integration
Orchestration
Data Fabric
AI
IoT
OpenSea
Ethereum
Blockchain
& NFT
Polygon
Flow
Stripe
Payments
Zuora
Moonpay
Experience
Platform
Service
Sales
CDP
Commerce
Content
Verse Engine
CRM 360
Analytics
Marketing
Personalize

12. Core Use Cases
49
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Metaverse
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2022
Meta-Workplace
02
Meta-Commerce
01
A 3D Virtual Storefront for both VR
& AR that connects to omni-
channel experiences using IBM iX
Experience Orchestrator (EXO.
03
Meta-Showcase
Enterprise considered 3D virtual
worlds that enable employees and/
or customers to meet & collaborate
in real-time
A 3D virtual customer showcase
where customers can meet &
explore experiences or products.
Meta-Branch
04
Meet and greet customers &
employees in a private enterprise
3D virtual space or in public
Metaverse platforms to enable rich
brand experiences
Meta-Twins
05
The ability to represent physical
world in digital spaces including
Field Worker services, digital
factory or Remote Assistance
(Ex: data centers)
06
Meta-Assist
Meta Assistants are 3D AI powered
avatars that integrate with Virtual
Assistant technology to provide
guided tours, meet & greet, Q&A,
assisted buy, and deflection

13. 50
Metaverse
Commerce
A 3D Virtual Storefront for both VR and AR that connects an
omni-channel experiences using IBM iX Experience Orchestrator.
Metaverse Commerce connects to digital commerce platforms
and experience layers digitally & physically. It enables:
• Immersive purchase experiences
• Geo-spatial physical purchases
• Virtual world purchases
• NFTs & digital tokens
• Meet & Greet & assisted purchase through Meta-Assist
Assets
Metaverse Store, 3D Assets for Commerce
IBM iX Experience Orchestrator, IBM Spatial Design System
Experience
Nisha, T-Mobile, LVMH, Fendi, Guerlain
Spatial &
Metaverse
15 August
2022

14. 53
Metaverse
Workplace
Spatial &
Metaverse
15 August
2022
Enterprise secured 3D virtual spaces(Web, VR, AR) for employees
& customers to meet. Employees can travel to various worlds,
collaborate virtually, run design thinking sessions & showcase
content. They can bring their own trusted identity & avatar.
It enables:
• Virtual Meetings
• Presence driven design thinking
• Team building & virtual office spaces
• Education & group learning
• Enhanced work experiences
Experience
• Showcases for Shell, State Bank of India, Heineken, BBC
• IBM studio tours and innovation showcases
Assets
Meta-Assist, 3D Assets, Templated 3D Rooms, Spatial Design

15. 55
Metaverse
Showcase
A 3D virtual customer showcase experiences enabled for
brands to meet with customers. Metaverse Showcase allows
users to explore products & virtual spaces. It can be enabled via
a public or private world through an AR/MR layer or Virtual
World: It enables:
• Enhanced AR or VR for experiences
• Virtual events, award shows, tours & shows…
• Configurators, bookings & customer galleries
• Q&A experience spaces
• Brand exploration & activations
Experience
Juntendo, LVMH, Fendi, Vodafone, BMW, London Fashion Week*
Assets
Meta Assist, Templated 3D Rooms and Assets
Spatial &
Metaverse
15 August
2022

16. 56
Metaverse
Branch
Optimized virtual spaces for real-time communication and tasks
on public platforms & virtual worlds: Metaverse Branch builds on
other virtual worlds to tailor directly to customer assisted
experiences & education. Meta Assistants are able to integrate
with existing chat & bot platforms to aid with complex forms,
account opening experience, product information. It enables:
• Immersive information
• Dedicated virtual space for tasks
• Shared assistance & dedicated teaming
• Augmented customer support
• Virtual assistance & task guidance
Experience
Nanto Bank
Assets
Meta Assist, Templated 3D Rooms and Assets
Spatial &
Metaverse
15 August
2022

17. 58
Metaverse
Twins
The ability to represent physical world in digital spaces
including Field Worker services, digital factory or Remote
Assistance (such as data centers). Metaverse Digital Twin
spaces can be used to represent virtual data centers, virtual
garages or virtual factories. Any space or information
systems can be twinned in a digital venue. They enable:
• Rich real-time data surfacing
• Simulation & data generation
• Advanced testing & collaboration
• Shared & tracked virtual spaces
• IoT visualization
Experience
BMW, Autostrasse, Bulgari
Assets
Digital Twins, IBM Experience Orchestrator, Maximo
Spatial &
Metaverse
15 August
2022

18. Metaverse
Assist
Virtual Concierge
Meet and greet your customers and
employees in your enterprise metaverse in
collaboration hubs, virtual showcases,
virtual branches, virtual worlds (such as
decentraland) and showrooms. This can
include making appointments, meet/greet
and personalized welcomes.
Virtual Tours
Meta Assistants can integrate with existing
virtual assistant technology to provide
virtual tours of your virtual showcases.
Meta Assistants have knowledge of your
products and can answer questions about
products, tours or your company with
existing Virtual Assistant technology
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Spatial &
Metaverse
15 August
2022
Interactive Experience
Interact with the environment such as
PowerPoints, videos to provide an
immersive experience
Call Deflection
Where Meta Assistants cannot help a
customer. Human powered virtual
assistants with 3D avatars can provide
exceptional experience integrated with
your contact centre and CRM
Platforms
VR (Unity + Oculus App Store), AR,
Mobile, Web, Decentraland, Altspace VR

19. Metaverse
Assist
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Spatial &
Metaverse
15 August
2022
Intents
In order to support specific conversation flows and actions industry
specific intents (such as retail banking) can be used to support
interactions with the virtual assistants. They can of course be custom
developed. Intents inform actions such as Pay Bill.
Natural Language Understanding
A natural language understanding capability for the appropriate virtual
assistant (such as Watson) is used to understand the conversation.
Q&A
Q&A AI can be used to support FAQ type information whether its long
form or short form content.
Dialog Flow
The ability to configure dialogs to support conversation is required.
All of these capabilities are provided by virtual assistant technology
such as IBM Watson
AR / VR Specifics
Although it may be tempting to think that you can use the same dialog as you would
use for a text chat. Speech is more nuanced. In order to convey the right message,
emphasis must be placed on the correct words and sentences must be written with
correct tone of voice and to support natural conversations.
It is likely that AR/VR specific dialog will be created to support these channels

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Spatial &
Metaverse
15 August
2022
Communicate
Speech to Text
Our Meta Assistants can understand voice interactions through the use of “Speech to Text” AI. This uses
either Watson Speech to Text on IBM Cloud or any cloud platform including Azure, AWS, Google or through
industry models provided through HuggingFace. Industry domain models can be used to understand
domain specific terms.
Text to Speech
Our Meta Assistants can provide realistic speech through “Text to Speech” AI and neural voices. This can be
through Watson or any Cloud AI solution or HuggingFace model. SSML providers are preferred.
Facial Animations
Meta Assistants on mobile and VR channels are able to perform facial sync’ing using Meta LipSync
coordinating lip movements with Audio.
How it Works
Our Meta Assistants real-time convert incoming conversations using Text to Speech, and then hand-off the
conversation to the Virtual Assistant. The assistant uses Mixamo animations and Facial expressions to
convey appropriate interest and emotion. Once a response has been received from the Virtual assistant
then using Speech to Text convey the response.

21. 69
Metaverse
Design
Thinking
Spatial &
Metaverse
15 August
2022
IBM Design Thinking
A human centered approach to develop solutions with
the RT3D and the Metaverse in mind. Our process
keeps to business outcomes without relying on any one
technology to understand people’s needs, form intent,
& deliver at speed and scale.

22. 71
Design
Lab
Spatial &
Metaverse
15 August
2022
Pain Points & Golden Thread
Day 1
Align users, technical and business teams to
ensure clarity and priority
Sketches & Low Fidelity
Iterate quickly on structure, key features, and
platforms while validating technical viability
High Fidelity & Next Steps
Establish user champions. Confirm business
& technical team impact & adoption.
IBM Design Lab
A multi-day intensive to quickly generate prototypes
and functional interactions. Unlike Design Thinking, this
focuses in on a single problem or area and generates
usable artifacts for further exploration.
Day 2 Day 3

23. 72
IBM
Garage
Spatial &
Metaverse
15 August
2022
Where innovation and transformation come together
IBM Garage is a framework for accelerating digital
transformation. It helps you generate innovative ideas and
equips you with the practices, technologies and expertise
to turn those ideas into business value in weeks.
When you work with IBM Garage you bring customer pain
points into focus. You empower your team to take
manageable risks. You adopt leading technologies, speed
up solution development and measure the value of
everything you do.

24. 73
IBM
Garage
Spatial &
Metaverse
15 August
2022
1. Co-Create
What is it?
A combined team of diverse subject matter experts are
immersed in intensive design thinking & research activities
to expose the best available opportunities.
What is the goal?
Establish alignment on a ‘big idea’ to address the specific
pain points of single or group of end users while creating a
vision for a minimal viable product (MVP)

25. 74
IBM
Garage
Spatial &
Metaverse
15 August
2022
2. Co-Execute
What is it?
A solution development cycle that uses Agile & DevOp
practices to quickly launch & test MVPs while still capitalizing
on IBM’s business & technology expertise - including hybrid
cloud & AI and best leveraging IBM & partner product services
& portfolios.
What is the goal?
Validate & improve the MVPs value in the marketplace through
an iterative process of testing, measuring, & re-launching.

26. 75
IBM
Garage
Spatial &
Metaverse
15 August
2022
3. Co-Operate
What is it?
Harden & sale the now robust solution. Meet the needs &
requirements to enable a new culture of innovation. Bring
those needs across the enterprise.
What is the goal?
Expand DevOps practices & cloud adoption to broaden
feature sets, stress test code, strengthen security &
resilience, deploy solutions widely, and expand
capabilities. Empower the enterprise with confidence to
continue innovation and transformation.

27. IBM Metaverse
Garage
76
Spatial &
Metaverse
15 August
2022 Integrated vision,
roadmap &
business case
Prioritize assets
& use cases for
first MVP
Deploy, Capture
Business
Outcomes &
Iterate
Deploy, Capture
Business Outcomes
& Iterate
Scale &
Iterate
Scaled experiences
across multiple
categories
Built to Scale
End-to-end strategic vision + Co-execute on use cases +
Operationalized technology for industry use cases +
iterative approach grounded in clarity of purpose.
Engage cross-functional
teams to create an end-
to-end vision for
transformation
ID expansion
categories &
enhance existing
architecture for
scale
Engage external partners
to validate & infuse RT3D
skills, up skill teams for
needed APIs, libs &
applications.
Establish a framework
for ongoing continuous
optimization & intake
Expert check-ins to
capture maximum value
Initial Assets Expand Case Refine Exp.
Periodically assess
opportunities for
capturing value
The Right Teams
Industry experts + External support +
3D designers + RT3D & XR developers
+ Data scientists + Architects