METAVERSE
Metaverse is the next evolution of social connection. It is a network of 3D virtual worlds of social connection. Supporters of the metaverse imagine its users working, playing and staying connected with friends through everything from concerts and conferences to virtual trips around the world. The main function of metaverse is connecting and collaborating real world people in the virtual world. People can also do business in the virtual word that may be utilized in the real world.
QUALITIES OF POWERFULL METAVERSE
Realism
You watch a movie rich in visual effects and computer graphics. What gets you so involved in the imaginary story world and the characters? The sense of realism they carry; isn’t it? The same applies to three dimensional virtual worlds and metaverse. To get a user totally immersed in the virtual world, they have to be that realistic and believable. And in the world of metaverse, realism is concerned with a user’s psychological and emotional engagement with the environment.
Sight
It comes as no surprise that sight is one of the direct links to a metaverse. One should be able to see and relate the environment within a metaverse as something he is used to. In fact, even the earliest visual mediums for virtual worlds were written as plain texts to form images inside the mind’s eye.
Sound
Speaking and listening is our most common form of verbal communication and virtual worlds and metaverse cannot exist without them. It is that sort of communication that instantly engage us with other residents of the virtual world and it is even more appealing than reading virtual face, posture or movement.
Touch
From walking to sitting and sleeping, you constantly make use of the sense of touch to control your movements so that you can complete the task you are working on. This is why touch is an empirical aspect of virtual world realism. To completely immerse in a virtual world, you need to get a physical stimuli of the objects inside the environment. The most common technology concerned with touch in virtual worlds is haptic or force feedback. The very idea behind haptic technology is to convert virtual contacts into physical ones. Whereas force feedback is rather a simpler form of haptic that has physical devices push against or resist the user’s body; especially hands or arms.
TECHNOLOGY
It is the combination of multiple elements of technology, including virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality and video world technologies.
VIRTUAL REALITY
Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that can be similar or completely different from the real world. The user feel they are immersed in their surroundings. This environment is perceived through a device known as a Virtual Reality.
AUGMENTED REALITY
Augmented reality (AR) is an enhanced version of the real physical world that is achieved through the use of digital visual elements, sound, or other sensory stimuli delivered via technology.
MIXED REALITY
Mixed reality is the merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualizations, where physical and digital objects co-exist and interact in real time.
COMPANIES USING METAVERSE TECHNOLOGY
While metaverse technology is conceived as the near future, the world has already entered the era of metaverse technology. In this segment, we will understand the way top tech metaverse companies are using the metaverse technology.
Microsoft
Microsoft is working with the technology of the metaverse in order to create an ‘enterprise metaverse’. In terms of enterprise management and operations, Microsoft is implementing metaverse technology to make way for a 3D virtual world apart from the physical operations of the enterprise.
Amazon
An e-commerce platform, Amazon is about to create a virtual economy with the help of the metaverse blockchain that will boost its popularity and expand its customer base. More than that, it will also help this tech company to bring together a virtual world where the company’s assets will play a central role.
Walt Disney
Let alone tech-based companies, but even cartoon franchises have initiated to build the technology of metaverse further. With an intent to create a virtual theme park with the help of artificial intelligence, Robotics, and other technological advancements.
NVIDIA
Digging deep into the concept of omniverse by NVIDIA, we discovered that it is working towards replicating the physical world by creating virtual twins of factories and buildings. All in all, a variety of companies are working towards bringing the mere thought of the metaverse into reality. Be it cartoon characters or hardware equipment, the metaverse is soon going to take over the prowess of the internet in no time.
METAVERSE IN REAL ESTATE
Real estate in virtual worlds – sometimes called the metaverse -is going for millions of dollars in some cases. The emerging real estate market for these three-dimensional spaces in virtual reality — including everything from virtual concert venues and shopping malls to houses and monuments — anticipates a future in which digital property owners can work with brands that want a presence in the various iterations of the metaverse. This metaverse land grab is happening under a similar assumption. What makes the metaverse real estate boom all the more enticing, though, is the idea that once you own a piece of digital land, you might be able to make money by leasing it out or selling ads. But even proponents are warning would-be investors that this is risky business.
FEATURES OF METAVERSE
Expansion of social media beyond media web 2.0
It is an expansion of social media beyond Web 2.0, the specific applications of metaverse center on creating and sharing digital information or contents that mark a dramatic leap from simple texts, photos, and videos. These contents are more graphic-intensive. Furthermore, the users become the content themselves.
Innovative communication for work and education
Covid-19 pandemic is the primary reason why video conferencing platforms such as Zoom Video Communications, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams have become more popular. A platform based on the metaverse would allow a more engaging interaction among participants due to the immersive and graphically-rich virtual environment.
New opportunity for Business and Marketing
The benefits of metaverse in businesses and marketers center on the advantages of virtualization. Marketers can create digitized versions of their products or place storefronts in a shared virtual world that can be viewed and navigated through the users. It will also open a new avenue for electronic commerce that takes advantage of augmented reality. The interactions between the target market and marketing contents and ads will be more immersive.
Complementing application of Blockchain Technology
Another notable advantage of the metaverse is that it supplements or complements the applications of blockchain technology. Note that blockchain is the primary technology behind cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, the Ether cryptocurrency of Ethereum platform, Dogecoin, and the Ada cryptocurrency of the Cardanol platform.
SHORTCOMINGS OF METAVERSE
- Generate addiction
- Make you lose track of time
- Separate you from real nature and real world
- Overstimulate your senses
- Security and privacy issue
FUTURE OF METAVERSE
We know the effect globalization had on human society as a whole. Products made anywhere in the world reached almost every corner and thus helped enrich our standard of living. The same kind of an effect or if not even more can be expected when virtual worlds merge together to form one Metaverse. Let us see how Metaverse can influence different arenas of our life.
RESEARCH PRESPECTIVE OF METAVERSE
MOBILE INPUT TECHNIQUES
As the ultimate stage of the metaverse will interconnect both the physical world and its digital twins, all human users in the physical world can work with avatars and virtual objects situated in both the metaverse and the MR in physical environments, i.e., both the physical and virtual worlds constantly impact each other. It is necessary to enable users to interact with digital entities ubiquitously.
NEW HUMAN VISIONS IN MOBILE HEADSETS
As VR mobile headsets will isolate human users from the physical realities and its potential dangers in public spaces . We discuss the latest AR/MR headsets that are designed for merging virtual contents in physical environments. Currently, the user immersive ness in the metaverse can be restricted by limited Field of View (FOV) on AR/MR mobile headsets. Narrowed FOVs can negatively influence the user experience, usability, and task performance. The MR/AR mobile headsets usually own FOVs smaller than 60 degrees. The limited FOV available on mobile headsets is far smaller than the typical human vision.
GAMING IN THE METAVERSE
While gaming is the biggest example of the ‘metaverse’ in the crypto sector, we are still in the early stages of blockchain gaming.” One of the most notable trends might be the rise of virtual experiences, be this in the form of online streaming of videos or events, or in the form of virtual reality. As with gaming in the metaverse, this should witness considerable use of NFTs.
DEMAND FOR METAVERSE – JOB ARISES AS DIGITAL ECONOMY
At this stage, it is unclear how many jobs will be created by the metaverse. To put things into perspective, 5G, the new standard in mobile communications, will create 309,000 new jobs in the next 15 years, according to the Progressive Policy Institute. The metaverse is expected to transform a number of existing jobs and usher in a new career descriptions, including for the roles of research scientist, planner, development manager, advertisement blocker, storyteller and even unpaid intern, developer platform.
SOURCES
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaverse
https://srushticreative.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/THE-POWER-AND-SCOPE-OF-METAVERSE.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality
https://www.analyticssteps.com/blogs/everything-about-metaverse-technology
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/12/investors-are-paying-millions-for-virtual-land-in-the-metaverse.html
https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/12/2/22812608/metaverse-real-estate-meta