Toward the Internet of No Things: The Role of O2O Communications and Extended Reality

Abstract: Future fully interconnected virtual reality (VR) systems and the Tactile Internet diminish the boundary between virtual (online) and real (offline) worlds, while extending the digital and physical capabilities of humans via edge computing and teleoperated robots, respectively. In this paper, we focus on the Internet of No Things as an extension of immersive VR from virtual to real environments, where human-intended Internet services - either digital or physical - appear when needed and disappear when not needed. We first introduce the concept of integrated online-to-offline (O2O) communications, which treats online and offline channels as complementary to bridge the virtual and physical worlds and provide O2O multichannel experiences. We then elaborate on the emerging extended reality (XR), which brings the different forms of virtual/augmented/mixed reality together to realize the entire reality-virtuality continuum and, more importantly, supports human-machine interaction as envisioned by the Tactile Internet, while posing challenges to conventional handhelds, e.g., smartphones. Building on the so-called invisible-to-visible (I2V) technology concept, we present our extrasensory perception network (ESPN) and investigate how O2O communications and XR can be combined for the nonlocal extension of human "sixth-sense" experiences in space and time. We conclude by putting our ideas in perspective of the 6G vision.