Sopra Steria is exhibiting at Laval Virtual on April 12-14, 2023.
Crédits photos : Sopra Steria
Sopra Steria supports companies in their digital transformation through consulting, services and software. To complete this mission and offer more technological possibilities to its clients, Sopra Steria has imagined building an industrial metaverse. Sopra Steria will be exhibiting at Laval Virtual on April 12-14, 2023 on booths B27, B34 and B41. Interview with David Maurange, Director of the Digital Expertise Center and Head of the Metaverse.
Can you present your company?
Sopra Steria, one of Europe’s leading technology companies, is recognized for its consulting, digital services and software publishing activities. It helps its customers to carry out their digital transformation and achieve concrete and lasting benefits. It provides a comprehensive response to the competitiveness challenges of large companies and organizations, combining in-depth knowledge of business sectors and innovative technologies with a resolutely collaborative approach. Sopra Steria places people at the heart of its activities and is committed to helping its customers make the most of digital technology to build a positive future.
What will you exhibit at Laval Virtual 2023?
This year, Sopra Steria and its partners are presenting its Industrial Metavers offer. In industry, 3D models are an indispensable resource for design, manufacturing and even service activities. Integrating them into digital twins makes it possible to deploy use cases throughout the value chain, in an incremental approach to building Industrial Metavers. To increase our clients’ operational efficiency, we also use multi-user immersive technologies (VR/MR/AR), synchronized in real time.
Laval Virtual is celebrating its 25th edition this year. Do you have any memories to share since the first edition in 1999?
We have been exhibiting for several years (with a break for COVID, as many do) and each time it is an opportunity to meet our customers and the entire ecosystem. For new visitors, I am always amused by their surprise to find this quality of speakers and exhibitors in Laval. Congratulations for this event and this dynamic that is a real driver for the 3D and XR field.
The world of immersive tech was shaken up by the rise of the Metaverse and virtual worlds. What is your opinion on these?
The Metaverse has allowed us to conceptualize the collaboration between 3D technologies, artificial intelligence, extended realities and even blockchain. All of these technologies were already making significant progress, and this momentum and communication boost made it possible to increase the value offered by the synergy of these technologies tenfold. Even if an inordinate amount of activity has been focused on the Metaverse over the last 2 years, it seems that the bell of the hype cycle curve dear to Gartner has already been reached and that disillusionment is running out on the open world, the entertainment and the speculation that the domain had generated.
However, more operational use cases such as the evolution of digital workplaces will bring real solutions to the hybridization of work. More broadly in the industry, projects based on digital twins are developing and bringing real value. I think that these “types of metaverse” will really be deployed in the short term thanks to the maturity of the industry in the 3D domain.
How do you see the VR world in 10 years?
If I engage in the crystal ball exercise over the longer term, I am convinced that the Metaverse concept will come back, powered by AI combined with more portable and affordable XR devices. The immersive virtual worlds that are already available to us will of course evolve but I don’t think (or wish) that the Metaverse will be limited to that.
What I think will trigger a massive adoption is the availability of digital twins of the world that will allow to enrich the vision of each user with “layers” of contextual information and to shorten the distance between individuals, whether it is in the context of their professional activities, in a private or entertainment setting. The user will thus be able to adapt his “augmentation” of the world according to the context and the intention of the moment.
