The Spatial Web

by Gabriel René

  We have addresses to locate devices on the Internet, to navigate between pages on the web, or buildings via maps. At most, these require two dimensions. We exist and operate in the third dimension. We need digital addresses that can do the same. We need a solution that metaphorically AND literally “addresses” space. We need a three-dimensional or “spatial” domain.

  The space around us doesn’t have any universally acceptable and accessible “address.” From the physical postal addresses that we use to correspond, navigate, ship, and receive mail and packages to the digital addresses that allow us to email, make phone calls and navigate between websites, none of them have a meaningful relationship to each other and present no method for integrating the physical and digital worlds. All current network-based address systems do not do a sufficient job at authenticating and networking people, places, and things.

  Address examples:

  Physical (postal) addresses for buildings

  Telephone addresses (phone #) for our phones

  Device (IP) addresses for our computers

  Web (domains) addresses for web pages

  In order to network spaces and then program the things and activities that occur within them, we first need a spatial address or spatial domain.

  A Domain Name is an identifier in the form of an alpha-numerical phrase that represents an address. A Web Domain Name is a text-based name like amazon.com that points to an IP address such as 172.16.254.1 that is the address of the server that hosts a website. A Spatial Domain, however, points to a 3D volumetric spatial address made of coordinates that can be registered across Distributed Ledgers. Spatial Domain Names can be real places like “Joni’s Café” or “Roman Colosseum,” or virtual like “The Oasis” or “Hogwarts.” Spatial Subdomains can be created to represent sub-spaces within the Spatial Domain. All domains confer spatial rights that can be digitally enforced. A Spatial Domain can control the permissions for AR content, IoT devices, Cameras, and Robots that are within its space.

  Domain : A field, area, or range of action, influence, knowledge or responsibility.

  Problem : There is no way to confer spatial rights, define permissions and activities of humans, machines, and AI within and across real and virtual locations because we do not have 3D volumetric addresses.

  Solution : Enable Spatial Domains which are 3D spatial addresses that can reference any virtual environment or a physical location in the real world.

  Benefit : Spatial Domains grant their owner the right to determine the rights, policies, and permissions of digital content and activity within their domain. These rights are much like the powers granted to web domain holders today with respect to the types of content access and user interactions that can occur on a webpage.

  Example : Joni may define the coordinates of her café in New York as the Domain Space “Joni’s,” and then register individual rooms—kitchen, dining room, etc.—as subdomains. Joni can control the spatial permissions at her café for AR content, IoT devices, Cameras, and Robots.

  In VR, the Oasis Spatial Domain can contain many subdomains within it such as the planets Archaide, Frobozz, and Ludus. Rights can be assigned accordingly.

  Spatial Domain Registry

  Similar to ICANN which manages the registration activities for web domain names, a Spatial Domain Registry will enable people and organizations to register Spatial Domain names and have them validated. For example, Paul and Norah may define their Home Domain as the coordinates and dimensions of their land in California, with the actual space of their home as Sub-Domains. Often the name of a space or business is used in multiple places around the world; for example, there’s a Coliseum in Rome and Los Angeles. To keep Spatial Domains organized in a standardized way and allow for multiple instances of the name, the Spatial Domain registry will contain its address, including country, state, and city location and other profile information.

  SPATIAL PROGRAMMING

  H TML or HyperText Markup Language and later, Javascript, established standardized methods to “program” or layout and set the interaction rules for content on web pages. But with the birth of spatial computing and the need to present holographic content in three-dimensional space, none of the web-based markup or styling languages are sufficient tools to “program” space or validate spatial rules necessary for programmable interactions or transactions with assets.

  HyperSpace Programming Language or SPATIAL CONTRACTS

  There are no standard rules for interactions or transactions between users, devices and locations with assets in spaces. Physical locations, objects and people have no standard method to describe spatial interaction rights, usage rules, searchability, or traceability of records. Therefore, you cannot search, discover, view, track, interact, transact and transfer assets between locations and users between virtual spaces and the real world in an open and standardized way.

  HSPL or Spatial Contracts are “contracts as code”—programmable, automated and self-executing software that removes trade or service agreements from the realm of static documents that require constant human management and instead program them into the spatial interactions themselves so that contracts are executed by the correct action.

  Solution : Enable a Spatial Programming Language or Spatial Contracts that can describe how to search, discover, view, track, interact, transact, and transfer assets between locations and users in virtual and real world spaces.

  Benefit : Enables searching, viewing, tracking, interactions and transactions with assets and spaces, across time and space in both virtual and geo-locations. Enables objects to contain ownership, tracking, interaction, and transactional rules and records.

  Example :

  A contractor finds the 3D model of a building in AR and projects it into space where the building will be built to act as a real-world guide. Workers are guided through step by step spatial instructions. The completion of each task automatically fulfills a spatial contract. After the construction is completed, the foreman checks the model against the building structure and confirms it was built to specifications, down to the bolt, and the inspector confirms it was built to code. The contractor and associated parties are automatically and instantly paid upon approval of each step and phase.

  While traveling in Tokyo, a father finds a rare Pokémon character and captures it for his young daughter. He teleports it to his home in LA for her to play with but limits its access to her bedroom.

  SPATIAL PROTOCOL

  A UNIVERSAL SPATIAL PROTOCOL STANDARD

  W eb addresses designed for interactions with text, media, and the navigation of web pages are not a sufficient technological foundation with which to develop the next generation of spatial applications and web spaces for people and things to interact, transact with, and navigate between. It isn’t designed to integrate the disparate technologies of the Web 3.0 era—AR, VR, AI, IoT, and DLTs. For this, we need to establish a new spatial protocol standard—one that communicates to and through each tier of the Web 3.0 stack. A spatial world needs a Spatial Protocol. It is the digital thread from which the Spatial Web is woven.

  The Spatial Protocol can take into account the features, properties, and requirements of each tier of the stack, as well as effects generated by the entire stack working together. It is what enables Web 3.0 to be spatial, cognitive, physical, decentralized, and secure simultaneously, weaving each layer of the stack into a strong and contiguous digital fabric.

  HyperSpace Transaction Protocol

  The web is currently accessed by the protocol HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) to route users and content between web pages. Similarly, HSTP (HyperSpace Transaction Protocol) will route users and 3D content such as objects/assets between web spaces.

  The Spatial Protocol is not merely another disruptive technology but a foundational one, designed to serve as the digital infrastructure to support the next generation of Web 3.0 applications. Foundational technologies facilitate disruption across every industry. They enable users, objects (virtual
or physical), and information to interact and transact together within and across any virtual or physical space, allowing these spaces to be networked together so that users, objects, and information can seamlessly move between them, like the Web. But unlike our current Web—a network of informational web pages locked behind a screen—a Spatial Protocol weaves a web for the world we live and operate in, a network of experiential web spaces—the Spatial Web.

  HSTP is the solution for traversing the Spatial Web. Users and Smart Assets can be transferred or relocated between Spatial Domains anywhere across the Spatial Web, using HSTP for “hyperporting” between web spaces by allowing “hyperspace” links to be placed in one webspace that links to any information about anything or to another webspace. This is similar to how we link content and web pages on the Web today.

  With an address for every space and a protocol to connect these spaces, we can move objects from space to space securely, we can track movements through space, and we can automate transactions through space.

  STATEFULNESS

  W here the records are located is where the value accrues. The stateless nature of the World Wide Web lacked a method for secure, trusted, and shared data storage and access at the data tier. This allowed companies like Google to capture the “states” or series of events that users left as a function of their search index just as Amazon did with its sales index and Facebook with its social index, enabling them to monetize user actions, attention, and behavior. This caused trillions of dollars of value to consolidate around the application or logic tier and the service providers that enabled it. Users did not receive any of the commercial value they contributed to the network, nor were the developers of the web itself able to meaningfully monetize their creation.

  The spatial index will be worth far more and should be part of a global public utility available to all. A “stateful” spatial index enabled by Distributed Ledger technologies will be critical to generating, representing, distributing, and securing value across The Spatial Web in a way not achieved on today’s web. The tokenization of this protocol represents a historical opportunity to monetize the protocol of the new web that was absent when the World Wide Web was established.

  A Spatial Index that is decentralized, censorship-resistant, immutable, and transparent allows users to retain the value they generate and the community to self-govern and monetize its creations while digital tokens can power and validate a vast range of spatial applications, interactions, and transactions. A Distributed Ledger-enabled and tokenized stateful web can reliably connect virtual and real-world spaces, track value, validate identity, and location while preserving privacy and data sovereignty. This allows for some powerful new features.

  A stateful Spatial Web enables smart digital twins of people, physical spaces, and objects to be reliably and securely linked together, spatially. The effect of this is that when an object or person moves into or out of any physical or virtual space, a Spatial Contract can be executed automatically, subject to a set of spatial permissions set by the owner or approved entity triggering a record of the action and/or initiating a transaction. This makes the Spatial Web a trustworthy network for any form of interaction, transaction, or transportation. With Smart Spaces and Smart Assets, Artificial Intelligence will be able to see, hear, touch, and move things both physical and digital using computer vision, the IoT, and Robotics. It can be used to guide drones and automated vehicles, restrict access to users or robots, and track Smart Assets from one Smart Space to another. Smart Contracts and Smart Payments can enable seamless and secure interactions and transactions in both virtual and geo-locations, letting users with Smart Accounts transfer Smart Assets, pay for goods and services, and be paid for the use of yours, from world to world. This is the power of adding statefulness to the web. It enables entirely new categories of features and benefits. Including standardized identifiers for people, places and things allowing for hyperspace links to be added to the Smart Twin of any object or person to connect information about anything to the thing itself. Imagine a crowdsource-enabled “Wikipedia-like” dataset for anything, but linked to the object it is referencing in space not a page on the web. Turning any object into a kind of “Wiki-object.”

  THE SPATIAL WEB COMPONENTS

  The Spatial Web Protocol Suite is an open-source specification to enable a universal standard for users, assets, and currencies to seamlessly and interoperably move between virtual and geo-locations.

  The Spatial Web Protocols and Standards necessary to enable an open, secure and interoperable Spatial Web should allow any real-world or virtual space to become a webspace, allowing users to track, interact and collaborate with spatial content or connected physical objects. The solution should enable interoperability across platforms, devices and locations and allow assets to be securely purchased and transferred between virtual and real-world web spaces, authenticated and validated, as needed by Distributed Ledger technologies.

  The Protocol Suite can be described in five components: Smart Spaces, Smart Assets, Smart Contracts, Smart User Accounts, and the Spatial Protocol.

  SMART SPACES

  A Smart Space is a defined location— a virtual or physical “place” described by its boundaries, some descriptive and classification information and a Spatial Domain and set of interaction and transactional rules (Smart Contracts). Smart Space is “programmable space.”

  Smart Spaces are semantically aware and “know” via validation of transactions within them what Users or Assets are in them and can reference and validate the permissions related to those. Smart Spaces can be securely encrypted by Distributed Ledgers and can control what users, objects, software, or robotics are able to be used.

  Problem : Currently, there is no way to reliably assign Spatial Rights or Permissions management for Users, AI, Spatial Content or IoT devices because there is no standard method to identify, locate, and assign permissions for activities spatially. There is no way to search for Spatial Content across real-world and virtual domains.

  Solution : Enable any space to become a Smart Space whose boundaries are defined by coordinates—either real world (latitude, longitude, and elevation/altitude) with 0,0,0 or virtual (x/y/z) including outdoor and indoor spaces. Enable for sub-millimeter granularity and third-party re-localization optimization. Smart Spaces enable assets to have proof of their location, ownership, and permissions in time and space, across any device, platform, and location within virtual spaces and in the real world. They are searchable and can transact with Users or Assets. They can support multiple Users and Channels of Spatial Content.

  Benefit : This solution enables multiple users to search, track, interact and collaborate with Smart Assets across time and space within Smart Spaces (i.e., in virtual and geo-locations). Smart Spaces are programmable.

  Example :

  A couple interested in buying a home in another state virtually walks through the various rooms of potential houses and can place their furniture in it to see how it fits.

  The Port of Long Beach notifies a buyer’s account that the cargo that left Hong Kong has just arrived. The buyer’s account automatically pays the shipper minus the port fees.

  SMART ASSETS

  A Smart Asset is any virtual or physical object that has proof of its unique existence, ownership, and location because it is registered on a Distributed Ledger with a single cryptographic ID containing its description, classifications, ownership, location, usage, and transaction terms, and unique history.

  Problem : Objects have no universal provenance or record of history, ownership, location or permissions that are synced and linked to the object itself. They cannot be traded, shared, sold, or transferred between across locations, users, apps, games or virtual worlds.

  Solution : Solution: Provide objects with universal provenance. Objects have proof of unique existence, ownership, and location are now Smart Assets.

  Benefit: Smart Assets can be used, traded, shared, sold, and transferred subject to a set of programmabl
e rules or Spatial Contracts across locations, users, apps, games, and virtual worlds

  Example:

  A woman searches across a thousand retailers from her living room and “tries on” a 3D virtual version of a watch, purse, and hat before placing her order.

  A repair team follows an arrow in front of them across the roof of a casino to fix an air conditioning unit. Once there, they can see the maintenance history of that unit on the unit itself and be guided visually through the installation of a new part.

  SMART (SPATIAL) CONTRACTS

  Smart Contracts are “contracts as code”—programmable, automated and self-executing software that removes trade or service agreements from the realm of static documents that require constant human management.

  Problem : There are no standard rules for interactions or transactions between users, devices, and locations with assets across locations. Physical spaces have no standard set of available rules for use. Therefore, you cannot search, discover, view, track, interact, transact and transfer assets between locations and users in virtual spaces and the real world.

  Solution : Enable a set of programmable spatial rules or Spatial Contracts that determine who can search, discover, view, track, interact, transact, and transport assets between locations and transfer ownership between users in virtual spaces and the real world. Enable “connected” physical objects to contain ownership, tracking, interaction, and transactional rules and records.

  Benefit: Enable searching, viewing, tracking, interactions, and transactions with Smart Assets and Smart Spaces, across time and space in virtual and geo-locations.

  SMART PAYMENTS