AUSTIN (KXAN) — As the internet continues to welcome new social platforms and budding creativity, Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is looking to expand his company — formerly known as Facebook — into the worlds of augmented and virtual reality.

But what, exactly, is the “metaverse” and what is Zuckerberg’s plan for using it? During a roundtable at the South by Southwest Conference & Festivals on Tuesday, Zuckerberg called the metaverse “the next generation of the internet.”

Just as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – all owned by Meta – create social platforms for people to engage with, his vision of the Metaverse is a social environment where people can meet for business, personal and entertainment opportunities.

“I think the ability to basically have these social environments and initiate a lot of these behaviors that are going to be more prominent in the metaverse, but now on these platforms already know how to emphasize what the people build and use, I know it’s going to be pretty powerful,” he said.

Virtual reality is a form of three-dimensional technology that simulates a visual environment that users can experience or interact with other people. VR headsets place screens in front of the user’s eyes to limit their visual connection to the physical world, while the autofocus lens tracks eye movement and pairs with the screen to achieve a visual play-by-scene. play.

Augmented reality, on the other hand, uses the environment of the physical world but combines it with sound, visual or other elements to modify it.

VR technology has been around for years, especially being used for entertainment and immersive gaming opportunities. As part of the metaverse model, Zuckerberg said he wants to extend it to everyday workspace environments and business opportunities.

Examples given included “teleportation” to work through virtual reality, where users wear headsets and interact with colleagues as avatars in a digital system. For retail offerings, he noted the ability to “try on” clothes in a virtual setting, as opposed to purchasing an item in person.

When asked how opportunities like VR workspaces differ from Zoom, Microsoft Teams or other digital video conferencing platforms, Zuckerberg said avatars can help improve simple things like contact. virtual visual to establish a digital connection.

“We’re looking at tools to be able to make realistic eye contact – that compromises to some extent making the device as thin as possible, or maybe it’s expensive, so now the price is going to be higher,” did he declare. “So there are all these different trade-offs that people make, but we will always make trade-offs in the direction of what can help people connect with us.”

With VR connections, Zuckerberg said users will be able to explore beyond the traditional geographic boundaries that have tied them to a place, like where they live or where they work. The timeline for this technology, he said, varies depending on whether it is based on virtual reality or augmented reality.

With the fundamental model of VR technology already in place through Meta Quest headsets, Zuckerberg said he sees VR offerings advancing in the relatively near future. With AR technology, that’s more of a reality in a few years before it hits the mainstream, he said, working to pack extensive technology into thin, attractive bezels.

From there, he said he believes creatives will be able to see and engage with the world from new vantage points.

“I think on some level the future kind of belongs to people who believe in it more than others,” he said.