(Informative)

Metaverse is a word conveying different meanings to different persons and more than 150 definitions have been formulated to date. MPAI defines a metaverse instance as:

An Information and Communication Technology platform  providing the following general functions:

  • To sense data from U-Locations (in the real world).
  • To process the sensed data and produce Data.
  • To produce one or more M-Environments populated by Objects that can be either digitised or virtual, the latter with or without autonomy.
  • To process Objects from the M-Instance or potentially from other M-Instances.
  • To affect U- and/or M-Environments using Objects in ways that are:
    • Consistent with the goals set for the M-Instance.
    • Within the Capabilities of the M-Instance.
    • According to the Rules of the M-Instance.
    • Respecting applicable laws and regulations.

So far, the developers of many systems responding to this characterisation have made technology decisions that best responded to their needs, often without considering the choices that other developers might have made for similar purposes.

As there have been mounting concerns that such metaverse “walled gardens” do not fully exploit the opportunities offered by current and expected technologies and calls have been made to make metaverse instances (in the following, M-Instances) “Interoperable”, MPAI has developed two Technical Reports and two Technical Specification that provide solutions to the M-Instance Interoperability issues. They are:

  1. Technical Report: MPAI Metaverse Model (MPAI-MMM) – Functionalities has introduced definitions, assumptions for the work, a collection of high-level use cases, a collection of exemplary service providers, a set of ~150 Functionalities,  review of the main metaverse-enabling technologies, an analysis of metaverse governance needs, and a standardisation roadmap.
  2. Technical Report: MPAI Metaverse Model (MPAI-MMM) – Functionality Profiles has introduced a revised and extended list of definitions; an operation model of the metaverse based on the notion of Processes performing or requesting other Processes to perform Actions on Items (Items are Data, Metadata, and Qualifiers supported by an M-Instance); an initial identification of Actions, Items, and Basic Data with Use Cases and Functionality Profiles; a collection of representative use cases tested against the Operation Model; and dour initial Functionality Profiles.
  3. Technical Specification – MPAI Metaverse Model (MPAI-MMM) – Architecture (MMM-ARC) provides means to achieve M-Instance Interoperability by specifying the Functional Requirements of Processes, Actions, Items, and Basic Data Types. These allow Interoperation of two or more M-Instances implementing the Operation Model, executing Processes, and producing Data with Qualifiers that comply with the MMM-ARC Functional Requirements, possibly via a Conversion Service as specified in MMM-ARC.
  4. Technical Specification – MPAI Metaverse Model (MPAI-MMM) – Technologies (MMM-TEC) specifies Items including Qualifiers that enable interoperability between M-Instances supporting those Qualifiers.

M-Instance is the word used by MPAI to indicate the type of metaverse that is specified by the two integrated specifications MMM-ARC and MMM-TEC. The Table of Contents of MMM-ARC merges the two specifications into one.

Chapters, Sections, and Annexes are Normative unless they are explicitly identified as Informative.

In all Chapters and Sections, Terms beginning with a capital letter are defined in Table 1 if they are specific to this Technical Specification and in Table 2 if they are common to all MPAI Technical Specifications. All Chapters, Sections, and Annexes are Normative unless they are labelled as Informative.