Zhangjiang Science Hall was recently completed at Shanghai’s Zhangjiang Science City and has been established to serve the role as the major site for scientific innovation in the city.

The hall most recently served as a branch location for the World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2022 (WAIC2022), which concluded on Sept 3 with the theme "Intelligent connectivity, infinite multiverse." The gathering signaled the beginning of the Zhangjiang Future City SUPER CITY's magical metaverse digital existence.

Zhangjiang Future City SUPER CITY

Zhangjiang Future City SUPER CITY covers about 4.1 square kilometers in the core area of Zhangjiang Science City, and was established in 2019. 

The forerunner area of the city will focus on “one island”, “one hall” and “one city”, which refers to Zhangjiang AIsland, Zhangjiang Science Hall and Zhangjiang Science City, and the digital metaspace for the SUPER CITY is under construction. They city’s goal is to converge Zhangjiang’s industrial cohesion and demonstrate the digital development trend of the metaverse.

Zhangjiang Group plans to recruit 100 track-champion enterprises to monitor the full-life circle of 11 major scenarios. The full-life circle covers technological development, product releases, and ecological collaboration, and the 11 major scenarios are key advanced technologies, innovations algorithms and intelligent computing, intelligent terminals, scientific and technological platforms, public service platforms, the metaverse new track, intelligent traffic, intelligent industries, intelligent medicine, intelligent businesses, and smart cities.

The 2,400 100 track-champion enterprises are expected to collect their core technologies to build five super scenarios - future traffic, future medicine, future life, future finance, and future manufacturing, which are part of the 10 extended major open style innovation platforms. For the World Artificial Intelligence Conference, the scenarios are expected to always be the most practical and readily available ones, enhance people's lives in all respects and encourage the growth of industries and technology.

The construction of Zhangjiang Future City SUPER CITY is expected to speed up the implementation of digital transformation, serve as a benchmark for developing future cities worldwide, and draw more business to Zhangjiang Science City through both online and offline channels. The AI industrial cluster is planned to be used by the Future City SUPER CITY as a technological crutch to enhance upstream and downstream corporate collaboration along the industrial cluster and facilitate integrated innovation across different sectors. The goal of offering services to industrial clusters through industrial conferences is highly anticipated.

Zhangjing Group plans to develop Zhangjiang Future City SUPER CITY into an "industry metaverse" that can offer services for the real economy. Zhangjing Group's strategic positioning is based on the main force of development and construction, promoting emerging industries, and innovating scientifically. The city plans to make it easier for more businesses to connect the resources of the digital city and big data, forming the core competitiveness for the future, thanks to the system integration features of the metaverse era.

Eight super application scenarios of the metaverse

The brand new hall, applications and scenarios have brought about brand new knowledge and experiences. Based on the construction plan of “one island, one hall, one city” and the development of an AI industrial cluster, Zhangjiang Science Hall has built eight super scenarios of the metaverse for the WAIC2022. Visitors are able to have a close-up look at cutting-edge technologies.

The scenarios are not only a simple demonstration of technologies, but also combine advanced technology with elegant art work that is meant to be “useful, available, and friendly” and “alive, interactive, flexible, and integrating”.

irst Scenario Hyper-realistic digital human technology experience - your first metaverse ID card

The hyper-realistic digital human technology experience developed by Deemos of the ShanghaiTech University group, is the digital twin of online and offline real identity. The experience is based on the full-stack automated digital human process independently developed by ShanghaiTech University. Through the systematic dome light field, the user’s face can be dynamically scanned with ultra-high speed and precision, and the muscle movements of facial expressions can also be captured.

The whole process can generate Hollywood-level digital human dynamic and static assets within three days, which is a huge leap in time and cost compared to traditional technologies. With the help of this "pore-level" hyper-realistic function, participants can have their own first "metaverse ID card" by customizing their own digital identity assets in the metaverse, which can be used in the metaverse or various businesses scenarios in the future.

Second Scenario Metaverse digital asset generation engine experience - lifelike digital twin

The metaverse digital asset generation engine was developed by DGene, which also is a member of ShanghaiTech University incubation group, and was honored with the metaverse track of technology transformation achievement. The engine demonstrates a new approach to future digital asset production in the metaverse scenario.  

With the help of the latest neural network radiation rendering technology that’s combined with computer vision, light field technology and geometric perception scene reasoning, the engine can generate lifelike high-quality digital assets in just a few seconds, and quickly reproduce the three-dimensional image of objects and even human beings.

Third Scenarios Metaverse 3D printer interactive experience - everyone’s “think to make” 

The metaverse 3D printer developed by FAB-Union was originally designed to print architectural blueprints, but printed chairs instead for its public debut.

The 224 chairs at the plenary session of this year's World Artificial Intelligence Conference - Industry Development Forum were all printed by the metaverse 3D printers. The chairs were made in all different shapes, sizes and colors, and participants could try them out to find the most comfortable one that fit their body type.

For every physical chair that is created offline, its digital artwork is also encrypted and stored on the blockchain. Anyone can buy a chair directly, or buy digital assets to print their own, which could undoubtedly become a "new terminal" of the typical metaverse track.

Fourth Scenario AI metaverse painting interactive experience - anyone can become an artist

AI metaverse painting was developed by ShanghaiTech University incubation group’s TIAMAT. With the most advanced algorithms, the painting platform focuses on the application of powerful multi-modal technology, and is committed to combining the collision of human inspiration and creativity with science and technology to help user’s create art. It can easily make a beautiful painting with simple words or simple black and white noises.

At the conference, the group also integrated urban spaces and landmark buildings such as Zhangjiang Science City and Zhangjiang Science Hall into the algorithm. There are also printers onsite, enabling users to print their own creations onsite.

Fifth Scenario Zhangjiang Central Area digital twin future city demonstration – a living “future city”

At the Zhangjiang Central Area digital twin future city, which was jointly created by DGene and Stereye of the ShanghaiTech University incubation group, users can experience the first collection process of the digital twin city construction by holding a 3D scanning robot. The scanning robot adopts a self-developed 3D reconstruction engine, which can complete centimeter-level high-precision 3D scanning of difficult scenes including indoor and underground scenes, produce real-time high-precision color-pointed cloud data, and provide the scanning results in real time. The technology has been adopted for data collection and scanning of indoor space on construction sites.

Users are also able to intuitively experience the live demonstration of six digital twin scenes in the Zhangjiang central area. Based on the digital twin technology of ShanghaiTech University, the entire digital twin city is a digitally restored Zhangjiang Science City in a three-dimensional manner, with a delay of less than 1 second. In the traffic scenario, full calibration of vehicle identity, full restoration of driving track and traceability of traffic events can be achieved. Attendees can have a close-up look at the prototype of the 4.1-square-kilometer "Future City" in the Zhangjiang Central Area from a bird’s-eye view.

Sixth Scenario VR/VR interactive experience - commercial metaverse

The AR/VR interactive experience scenario was showcased at the WAIC2022 by Sight Plus, WAYZ and PICO.

In the AR signature wall scene created by Sight Plus, participants' signatures will be left online through AR technology and permanently preserved in the Zhangjiang Science Hall.

The metaverse venue experience created by WAYZ embellished the Zhangjiang Science Hall splendidly in the metaverse space.

PICO created a metaverse meeting experience scenario where visitors can experience a Zhangjiang Science Hall meeting in the metaverse space.

Seventh Scene 3D holographic venue navigation screen experience - view Zhangjiang with an unaided eye 

The experience was created by YesAR, a high-tech enterprise specializing in holographic display technology and new generation of intelligent display and interactive systems.

This scene does not need the help of external equipment, and the principle of light field reconstruction can be used to realize media-free imaging in the air. It combines gesture, voice, eyeball and other interaction methods to create a new vision and experience. By clicking on the Science Hall, participants can learn about the introduction, functions and data of the hall.

Eighth Scene Unmanned machinery equipment experience - always online unmanned “chariot”

The unmanned equipment experience created by Zhangjiang Robot Valley’s coffee latte robot, Siasun’s nucleic ccid robot, and Jushi’s unmanned inspection vehicle and commercial unmanned vehicle can provide users with a direct interactive experience.

These unmanned devices create real-life scenes that take place in Zhangjiang Science City all year round. The unmanned inspection vehicles and commercial unmanned vehicles are the "chariots" for uninterrupted patrols during the anti-epidemic period in the science city.

At the WAIC2022, these metaverse super application scenarios allowed attendees to have a close encounter with the metaverse’s "digital world" and thus give them a better understanding of the metaverse.