“My VR does not acknowledge me as a person”: Is the metaverse leaving disabled users behind?
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“My VR does not acknowledge me as a person”: Is the metaverse leaving disabled users behind?

Last month, Apple revealed its long-teased Vision Pro headset, a device that uses augmented reality technology to project a digital image onto the physical world. But, Apple revealed, it won’t work — at least out of the box — if you wear glasses. Instead, you’ll need to buy inserts to attach to the device lens. Apple’s…

We should be regulating the metaverse now
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We should be regulating the metaverse now

We have no way of knowing exactly what form the metaverse will eventually take but that doesn’t mean we can’t start regulating it.  What we know about the metaverse The term metaverse might invoke visions of gaming platforms and virtual worlds in which people socialise in real time as unique digital avatars. Platforms such as…

Work and immersive technologies
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Work and immersive technologies

Both augmented reality and virtual reality have increasingly pushed to become key players in the workplace. AR has had a much longer history within the workplace, particularly as an assistive technology in manufacturing industries. There is a body of research in the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) that presents experimental cases – with Funk…

Is the metaverse really the future of work?
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Is the metaverse really the future of work?

According to Mark Zuckerberg, the “metaverse” – which the Meta founder describes as “an embodied internet, where instead of just viewing content – you are in it” – will radically change our lives. So far, Meta’s main metaverse product is a virtual reality playground called Horizon Worlds. When Zuckerberg announced his company’s metaverse push in October 2021, the prevailing sentiment was that it was something nobody had asked for, nor particularly wanted.

Sexual assault in the metaverse isn’t a glitch that can be fixed
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Sexual assault in the metaverse isn’t a glitch that can be fixed

A growing body of research has documented multiple challenges with commercial content moderation conducted by social media platforms today, from appalling working conditions for moderators who are overwhelmingly located in the Global South, to the issue of biased algorithms, and the lack of transparency and accountability in moderation decisions. Moderation is no doubt an incredibly difficult task.