Cutting carbon intensive travel with the metaverse

MBZUAI faculty and students are trying to improve how people interact with one another, by developing fully immersive, AI-powered 3D telepresence that could make unnecessary, carbon-intensive travel a thing of the past.

These new AI and immersive technologies can make the concept of the metaverse possible, and enhance lives with digital experiences that are otherwise not possible in the physical world. These include learning about history and other cultures by experiencing certain past events as if you were there.

“Instead of having historians or archaeologists trying to describe how things looked in the past, we can now use data to reconstruct environments so that you can go back into the past and experience and interact with it instead of just seeing it,” explains Dr. Hao Li, Associate Professor of Computer Vision and Director of MBZUAI Metaverse Center “The keyword here is virtual teleportation. It’s not only about people interacting but also being in another place.”