Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia has been gaining ground on the Metaverse ecosystem, pivoting this time from its traditional consumer-centric verticals into providing solutions for what the company calls the ‘industrial metaverse’.
The company is pursuing the potential of developing a metaverse for the industrial sector, seeking to blur the lines between IT systems at the headquarters and the shop floor.
Last year, Nokia began its collaboration with the University of Technology, Sydney to deliver a 5G-connected microbrewery using metaverse technology.
Using augmented reality (AR), researchers from a brewery tech lab in Sydney have been working alongside researchers from a twin facility at Dortmund University in Germany.
Meanwhile, in South Australia, Nokia has been using the metaverse to potentially assist Cessna aircraft technicians at remote airports.
How does the industrial metaverse work?
According to Nokia, the next few years will see the merge of industrial operational technology (OT) systems with the metaverse for monitoring and analysis and direct control of operations.
As IT systems in headquarters merge with OT on the factory floor, the distinctions between these two business-focused metaverses will blur.
Earlier this month, Nokia’s global chief strategy and technology officer Nishant Batra told the World Economic Forum (WEF) that the metaverse will have the biggest immediate impact on industries, rather than the consumer market.
“Ports have begun using digital twins to track every container on their docks, no matter how deeply they are buried in stacks.
“Aerospace companies are building engines and fuselages in the digital world to simulate exactly how an aircraft will fly – long before they tool its first mechanical part,” said Batra