digitalization
Wissing sees great potential in virtual worlds
Digital Minister Volker Wissing, here during a visit to aircraft manufacturer Lilium, with MR glasses (Mixed Reality) in a flight simulator. photo
© Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa
The technology for virtual or augmented reality has so far only marginally made it out of the games industry. It has great potential for many areas of application.
According to the Digital Minister Volker Wissing (FDP), so-called immersive technologies offer great development potential for Germany as a business location. Immersive technologies either depict reality completely virtually (Virtual Reality, VR) or enrich it with selected virtual information (Augmented Reality, AR).
“We have to make Germany the best location for new technologies,” said Wissing on Wednesday in Berlin in a group of around 100 experts in which specific fields of application for virtual worlds were discussed.
Immersive technologies are playing an increasingly important role in digitization, emphasized Wissing. “With digital twins, for example, we can build faster and more efficiently. Live instructions in the metaverse make qualification easier, for example in maintenance. And in mechanical engineering, virtual models enable location-independent maintenance.” This would create new business models for German industry.
For years, techniques have been discussed internationally with which one can either completely immerse oneself in a virtual reality or expand the analogue reality. However, VR and AR do not achieve greater economic importance beyond the computer games scene.
Most recently, however, important impetus came from California’s Silicon Valley. On the one hand, the Facebook group changed its name to Meta. CEO Mark Zuckerberg wanted to emphasize the importance of the Metaverse. A metaverse is a digital space in which people can interact with each other as avatars in a virtual reality. Apple provided the second impetus in June with the announcement of its Vision Pro data glasses, which set new technical standards.
Wissing emphasized that Germany must above all deal with the opportunities offered by the new technologies. “We have to open up experimental fields for innovative companies, promote use and break down regulatory barriers where possible.”