The new word “metaverse” has been on everyone’s lips over a recent couple of years, but the concept has gone through difficult times, overcoming failures. That means it is not a new technology or new concept that appears out of nowhere.

“The concepts of AR and VR have long been the subject of research in the academic world since they first appeared in around 1990. As they required an extremely expensive machine with massive computing power, it took some time to implement the technology. And its precise origin dates back to the 1960s, when the advent of computer graphics technology began to lead to the concept of a computer creating a virtual world. Head-mounted displays (HMD) were invented around that time as well.”

For these reasons, AR technology has been used in science documentaries since the 1990s. And then, services like Cyworld and Second Life, a sort of early versions of metaverse platforms, appeared in the 2000s, and smartphones began to be widely used in the 2010s, which led to the launch of applications and Google Glass using AR technology. But the technology was not mature yet, those services and devices were shunned by the market. What gave a strong impression of the new world with AR to the public was Pokémon Go, a game that was a huge hit around the world in 2016.

“Finally, an application appeared that allowed anyone to easily access AR. In the past, it was difficult to explain the concept of AR to ordinary people in lectures. But it’s become much easier since Pokémon Go was launched.”

Professor Park first encountered AR technology in 1992, when he worked as a researcher in NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories in Japan, which led research on video technologies at that time. And there, he learned the technology enabling realtime combination of AR in broadcasts using tools like Virtual Studio. Even before the metaverse was widely known, he was attracted by the relevant technologies and began to work on the development of “tracking” technology.

“Suppose a virtual object is beside me. If you want to make the object seem to be with me even when I’m moving, you need to calculate my movements in advance. The object would otherwise look to be floating separately with me. Tracking technology is used to seamlessly combine virtual objects with reality. When a video consists of 30 frames per second, the calculation must be made within 1/30 seconds. Since it required a vast amount of calculation, tracking was the most difficult core technology for AR. And the technology has achieved great advancement since the 2000s.”

Since the 2010s, when AI, as well as VR and AR, began to advance significantly, the technologies have become mature enough to realize the metaverse. Professor Park, who are currently leading the Mixed Reality Laboratory, is working on technology that can virtualize reality in a digital space and make the virtualized reality seem more realistic. In 2015, he studied the methods of archiving and preserving the original colors of artworks by applying AR and VR technology to extract the accurate colors and resolution of them, as a research task given by the Korea Creative Content Agency. The study results were exhibited at Hanyang University Museum under the theme of “Digital Archiving and Restoration of Artworks” in 2018.

Aside from that, he is studying various subjects such as the high-quality 3D modeling and rendering technology, real-time 3D tracking engine, AR for medical application, 3D computer vision in the defense industry, and high-speed hologram generation. Among them, to apply real-time 3D tracking engine technology into our real life, Professor Park founded an AR specialized company, Aria Edge (formerly known as Atom & Bit), in 2018.

“We developed ‘ARIA_Factory,’ an industrial AR solution, and are providing it for many Korean food companies and pharmaceutical firms. We are also developing remote meeting solutions with immersive avatars as a B2C business.”

The metaverse is in its early stage around the world. And therefore, to lead the era of the metaverse, it is important to take the lead by securing de facto standard in the fields of virtual convergence content, platforms, and devices that combine XR and DNA (Data, Network, and AI). Professor Park stresses that he expects Koreans to play important roles in the world of the metaverse.

“I believe that Koreans will stand out in the digital world if their nature of pursuing new things is well connected to imagination needed for the metaverse. I’ll also make efforts to develop source technologies and provide competitive products and services.”