Korean blockchain company Theta Labs announced it’s launching 3D NFTs to be used with Sony’s Spatial Reality Display, a tablet that leverages technologies like augmented reality and 3D and is equipped with a sensor that follows users’ eye movements. According to Theta, the Display will provide a “Whoa, baby” experience. The device was first sold in 2020 for around $ 5,000 and won the CES Innovation award in 2021. Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation Sony’s music and entertainment industry has been quite active when it comes to NFT.
The company explained that, during the pilot, NFTs representing any digital object, avatar, or collectible in the world can be viewed in 3D mixed reality form without glasses. This represents a very important innovation for the metaverse industry since consumers will be able to enjoy a next-generation 3D experience without the need for 3D eyewear.
The copies of “The Tiki Guy” token will allow owners in the United States with a valid address to redeem a Sony Spatial Reality Display device. Tiki masks come from the Hawaiian tradition and represent the image of a certain god and as an embodiment of that specific god’s mana, or power. Because only 10 NFTs will be minted, the demand for these tokens is expected to outweigh the supply, which means the prices for these tokens could be extremely high. The release date still needs to be announced.
These NFTs will showcase the next-generation capabilities of Sony’s Spatial Reality Display and give owners a completely new way of viewing their assets on a screen. Of course, users will also be able to purchase 2D versions, so a 3D special display is not strictly necessary. The Tiki Guy NFTs currently require an expensive Windows PC running Unity to view the images on the Sony device. So, unless you don’t already own a performing gaming PC, a couple of thousand dollars need to be spent on the hardware to be able to run the display.
NFT spending in 2022 is surpassing last year’s records: in 2021 $40 billion worth of crypto was linked with NFT marketplaces and collections—this year, the number is already up to $37 billion. This happened after an initial negative trend, where for the first three months of 2022 profits from trading fell by 3%, with losses reaching 50% on average compared to the last quarter of 2021.
The project presented by Sony and Theta Labs is a great innovation because the NFTs can now be viewed in a glasses-free 3D mixed reality form, bringing a sort of physical presence to the metaverse. This is a great opportunity for metaverse enthusiasts and collectors to display their NFTs in a new way. And the use cases are not only limited to gaming, but their website also includes entertainment and medical applications. While many metaverse applications already support 3D technologies, the display solutions still do not support them. That’s why this drop may open up an entirely new market for NFT lovers.
For now, Sony’s Spatial Reality Display only supports 3D assets—no, you cannot showcase Bored Apes in 3D for the time being—but the Metaverse platforms such as Decentraland or Sandbox maybe soon compatible with the display depending on the technical settings. It seems plausible that tokenized items, avatars, tools, and characters will soon be shown as 3D objects on the display through wallets such as Trust Wallet or on platforms such as OpenSea.
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Kevin Mudd, EU Regulated Fund Manager and KMG Capital Markets' CEO, created D-CORE to become the first provider of high-quality, institutional-level research in the crypto/blockchain market. He heads D-CORE's operations from Limassol, Cyprus.
Carlos Cano is D-CORE's Creative Lead and host of the Blockchain People podcast on D-CORE's platforms. He is a digital nomad and is responsible for all the creative materials you see from D-CORE. You can find him on Twitter.
