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n with someone, not just what it /ooks like. company who live on three different continents pull apart a 3D model of a new vehicle's engine to make improvements. This type of meeting could be accomplished through either augmented reality (where you superimpose a digital layer on top of our physical environment) or virtual reality (where you enter a completely immersive world). The change won't come right away, since most people don't own tools to enable this kind of capture yet, in contrast to the way the switch to video meetings was enabled by the fact that many people already had PCs or phones with cameras. Right now, you can use virtual reality goggles and gloves to control your avatar, but more sophisticated and less obtrusive tools--like lightweight glasses and contact lenses--will come along over the next few years. Improvements in computer vision, display technology, audio, and sensors will capture your facial expressions, eyeline, and body language with very little delay. Think about any time you've tried to jump in with a thought in a spirited video meeting, and how hard that was when you couldn't see the way people's body language shifts as they're wrapping up a thought. A key feature in the metaverse is the use of spatial audio, which makes speech sound like it's actually coming from the direction of the person talking. True presence means that technology captures what it feels like to be in a room with someone, not just what it looks like. In the fall of 2021, I got to put on a headset and join a meeting in the metaverse. It was amazing to hear how people's voices seemed to move along with them. You don't realize how unusual it is to have meeting audio only coming from your computer's speaker until you try something else. In the metaverse, you'll be able to lean over and have a quiet side conversation with a coworker just like when you're in the same room.