Understanding the Spatial Web

As we venture ever forward in our pursuit to integrate technology in the real world, we face some serious social questions around the ethical use of that tech. The advancement in recent years of Virtual and Augmented Reality technology (AR & VR) has opened up practically limitless potential to benefit almost every area of our existence; multinational project collaboration and realistic design visualisation with the help of VR, or simply socialising with distant friends in a virtual space. But as the old adage goes, with great power comes great responsibility. As the discovery of fire unlocked forging and metal work, so it also enabled us to create swords and spears. We stand on the cusp of a revolution in web use where AR and VR technologies will become increasingly assimilated into our daily lives. This integration of real world and digital technology is what the ‘spatial web’ aims at achieving in the very near future, and has lead to much discussion about the it will bring with it. Let’s delve into what the spatial web means, and how it will impact us as people.

What is the Spatial Web?

Essentially, the term embodies the idea of the web taken off the computer screen and placed into the world around us in real space. If one were to attempt a definition, it might be something like a 3-Dimensional computing environment that exists around us, an integration of reality and virtual reality that works off billions of connected devices that is accessed through virtual and augmented reality interfaces. But that is complicated, so let’s look at it more simply…

The web protocols we use today were designed with the view in mind of connecting pages of information with computers. The first generation of internet, web 1.0, contained static, read-only data on computers. Later, web 2.0 added user-generated content and interactive applications like social media and allowed these to be accessed on devices like smartphones. This is where we currently are in internet evolution, but we are about to enter the third generation of web use; web 3.0.

The internet and its use has changed profoundly since web 1.0, and these protocols which we still currently use were simply designed to share information. They did not aim to connect people, places and the real world, nor to coordinate humans and artificial intelligence in real time global commerce. If we are to meet these needs, we need a new vision of the web. Web 3.0 dawns the rise of sensors, VR headsets, smart glasses, and all kinds of wearable devices. With these new devices, we can embed the web in the world around us, rather than have it locked in computer screens where we must go to access the internet in the same way as we might go to an ATM to withdraw money. Traces of this way of interacting with the web, this spatial web, can already be seen in virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa.  

IOT devices such as these can be implanted all around us so that the internet is brought into real space for humans to interact with. The world becomes the web. This is the idea of the spatial web, and it’s being seen as a much more natural way for people to interact with the technology. Rather than accessing a computer or using traditional web pages, the spatial web will work seamlessly with our physical environment, allowing us to interact with it in much the same way we do the rest of the world.

What will this look like for ordinary people?

We perhaps cannot totally comprehend the extent to which this technology will help us. Currently, ideas are being generated as to all the areas the spatial web could incorporate and which would benefit from it. In med-tech for instance, consulting holographic anatomical models could allow surgeons to experiment without posing a danger to patients during surgery. Organs annotated with notes and magnified incision sites provided by assisting technology could be virtually presented to surgeons, speeding up reaction times and improving precision, as well as perhaps offering alternate interventions.

But most of us who are not surgeons might be wondering what benefits the spatial web might hold in our daily lives. As a whole, spatial web will alter the internet experience beyond the way we experience it today, significantly changing how we interact with each other as people and the world around us. We can but imagine, for example, the possibilities it holds for socialising and leisure activities. The connectivity it will offer to people with their friends, perhaps long distance, will be a much more enhanced experience than social media is able to achieve through photos and videos. The emerging metaverse, for instance, would allow even the furthest away friends to hang out together in virtual space, doing activities together through the use of VR technology rather than sharing separate memories with one another via social media platforms.

Today, the first thing most of us will do when we wake up is try to connect to the internet via mobile devices. We want to connect with our friends and loved ones, see what is happening in the world and perhaps check our daily schedules. Now picture waking up under the spatial web. Going about your morning, an intelligent, hands-free interface replaces your phone. This interface curates multiple media channels, filtering relevant information that you wish to see about what your friends have been up to, perhaps news stories, and the daily weather forecast right into your field of view.

And the spatial web will also benefit work life too. Having scheduled a self-driving car from your interface to take you to work, it reminds you of a business meeting at the Dongguan International Trade Centre. But far from needing to catch a flight to China, you are already there in the conference room. That is, you are in the virtual meeting room with colleagues across the globe connected through virtual reality. Beginning work, the interface tones down content relating to your social and private life allowing you to focus on relevant material to assist with your work. In high-risk environments, too, virtual and augmented reality have currently barely scratched the surface. Yet, firefighters are already able to train effectively, fighting virtual wildfires and the like, in safe circumstances thanks to platforms such as FLAIM Trainer.  

There are of course also some serious considerations with regards to safety in the spatial web. Questions circulate around matters such as social responsibility and ethical business practice. With the internet currently restricted to a slab of glass which we carry with us, we are able to put it down or disconnect – something many find hard to do. In fact, businesses spend huge sums on of money on methods to keep their users engaged such as reward systems and incentivisation. In recent years, governments and international authorities have gained interest in the design practices used by big businesses, with the US and EU considering legal regulation of certain methods. Realising the innovative vision of the spatial web requires far more than new software code, rather it requires new ethical and human-focussed social codes also. Implementing it will effectively allow us to improve and enhance virtually every area of society, from education, health and the legal system to business, politics and perhaps ecologies. The accessibility and cohesion it provides has the potential to shift our predominantly ethnocentric and self-centred concerns to world-centred ones that are more inclusive and equitable.

Economic Impacts of the Spatial Web

Some of the financial benefits to the spatial web are easy to envision, for instance cities creating entire 3D digital twins of themselves greatly improves city planning and decision-making which not only increases efficiency but also reduces costs. But there are also deeper changes that we can expect the spatial web to bring with it in regard to economics. This next step in internet technology has the potential to drive digital assets into the mainstream world of finance and commerce, using digital e-currencies in the real world to pay for goods and services. The expected use of blockchain in this vision could also push the use of decentralised currency, running on decentralised protocols that underpin transactional activities such as those used in DeFi. Many experts also believe that much like we are currently seeing, it will be user-generated content that will prove to be critical in unlocking further potential for Augmented Reality (AR) technology in the future.

Links and Further Reading

Deloitte Insights. 2020. The Spatial Web and Web 3.0. [online] Available at: https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/topics/digital-transformation/web-3-0-technologies-in-business.html

Rene, G., 2019. An Introduction to The Spatial Web. [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/swlh/an-introduction-to-the-spatial-web-bb8127f9ac45#:~:text=The%20Spatial%20Web%20integrates%20Convergence,and%20physical%20lives%20become%20one

Shewale, M., n.d. What is The Spatial Web and how it will transform the internet?. [online] Mirror Review. Available at: https://www.mirrorreview.com/what-is-the-spatial-web-and-how-it-will-transform-the-internet/

Soldinger, J., 2020. Protecting Users as We Embark Into the Era of Spatial Computing. [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/swlh/protecting-users-as-we-embark-into-the-era-of-spatial-computing-89aca3652737

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