TPAC breakout, October 28: Evolving the web browser for spatial computing, digital twins, physical AI and robotics

Hello all,

Neil Trevett, Yin-Chien "Yinch" Yeap and I are hosting a TPAC breakout session on how the web browser and websites can evolve for spatial computing, digital twins, physical AI and robotics, and we'd like to invite you.

Wednesday, October 28, 14:00–15:00 Dublin time (GMT) Ground Floor, Ulster Suite, and online for remote TPAC participants Session details: w3.org/events/meetings/ca79e680-e096-47d9-941e-43fe1707e161

The web connects people to about 217 million active websites. There are roughly 2 billion internet-connected buildings in the world, plus the streets, campuses and factories between them, and each could publish a digital twin with services anchored to where things are. Reaching them takes spatial browsing. A device would find what's published at a location as a person or robot arrives, without anyone typing a URL, and combine content from many independent publishers into one 3D scene. The web wasn't designed for that, so many of these products are being built inside closed platforms today. The session covers what the web would need to support it, including changes to the DOM and iframes, multi-origin composition, geo-located content, native rendering and security.

The Open Metaverse Browser Initiative at the Metaverse Standards Forum is building an open-source engine for this called Sneeze, and we'll show it running in the Rubidium browser. Sneeze runs alongside Blink, WebKit and Gecko, so it can be deployed gradually. The discussion will focus on three areas: spatial browsing, securing a 3D scene shared by many publishers, and the standards needed for interoperability. The Metaverse Standards Forum doesn't write standards, so we'd like the W3C's feedback on the architecture and on which groups should help standardize the necessary components. Background reading is at omb.wiki <https://omb.wiki/> and metaverse-standards.org/open-metaverse-browser-initiative <https://metaverse-standards.org/open-metaverse-browser-initiative/>.

We believe the W3C should lead this work. The W3C's open standards are a large part of why the web stayed open to everyone, and the same process can keep spatial computing from splitting across closed platforms. Much of what needs standardizing, including scene representation, service discovery, and identity and security, connects to work W3C groups are already doing on WebAssembly, decentralized identifiers, geolocation and the Web of Things.

Dean Abramson and I also wrote a book on this topic, The Spatial Age: Evolving the Web for Spatial Computing, Physical AI, and Robotics. You can read it free now at rp1.com/book/the-spatial-age <https://rp1.com/book/the-spatial-age>, and everyone who attends in person in Dublin will receive a printed copy.

We hope to see you there. If you can't attend, feel free to reply with questions.

Best regards,

Sean

Sean Mann
Co-founder & CEO - RP1
Principal Board Member - MSF

Email:    Sean@rp1.com
Mobile:  818-398-5888