Dubai Municipality’s Director-General Mr. Dawood Abdul Rahman Al Hajri has revealed that the government institution will work with private sector companies and investors to create a futuristic, human-centered version of the city that capitalizes on opportunities thrown up by the metaverse.
Mr. Al Hajri has introduced the One Human Reality concept to delegates during a plenary session, entitled ‘Operating Cities of Tomorrow’, held as part of the World Government Summit 2022 (WGS2022), taking place at Expo 2020 Dubai.
The metaverse is a virtual-reality space where users interact with computer-generated environments and other users. Further, it combines elements of social media, augmented reality, virtual reality, video games, cryptocurrencies, and other advanced technologies.
Dawood Abdul Rahman Al Hajri Director General Dubai Municipality
“One Human Reality is the meeting point or integration between two worlds: the metaverse and the world we are currently living in together. The metaverse today has become closer to reality than we could have imagined. Residents could be joined by friends in other parts of the world in the form of avatars on a virtual walk through a city park. Similarly, simulated time travel to historic moments or immersive tours of landmark destinations may be other metaverse applications. Such futuristic use cases would require portals in public spaces and city centers. And, the governments and cities should invest in building this infrastructure as soon as possible.”
According to the reports, Dubai Municipality will soon launch a program called One Human Reality Talks, aimed at bringing together companies and investors to develop and share this new reality. It will include dialogues with experts, insights, cooperative use cases, knowledge sharing, and so on.
“Cities benefit from integrating big data. With the help of the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, city leaders will be able to build a digital infrastructure enabling us to access this world in a new way,” Mr. Al Hajri concluded.
