What is the Metaverse?
The Metaverse is a post-reality universe that combines physical reality and digital virtual worlds in a continual and persistent multiuser environment.
The Metaverse is built on the convergence of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies, which enable multimodal interactions with digital items, virtual environments and people. As a result, the Metaverse is a web of networked immersive experiences and social in multiuser persistent platforms.
Furthermore, cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are conceivable because of technologies like blockchain, which allow for the ownership of virtual items and real estate in metaverses like Decentraland.
Microsoft and Meta are among the companies developing technology for interfacing with virtual worlds, but they aren't the only ones. So many other significant corporations are constructing the infrastructure needed to create better virtual, more realistic worlds.
How does the Metaverse work?
Jon Radoff (an entrepreneur, novelist and game designer) proposed a seven-tiered conceptual framework to define the Metaverse market's value chain.
As per the framework, seven layers make up the Metaverse, including experience, discovery, creator economy, spatial computing, decentralization, human interface and infrastructure.
Experience
The Metaverse will give us a plethora of three-dimensional (3D) visuals and even two-dimensional (2D) experiences that we are currently unable to enjoy.
Discovery
Inbound and outbound discovery systems continue to exist in the Metaverse ecology. When people are actively hunting for information, this is known as inbound discovery. Meanwhile, outbound marketing refers to sending communications to people regardless of whether they requested it.
Creator economy
Creators of earlier incarnations of the internet needed some programming knowledge to design and construct tools. However, developing web applications without coding is now possible owing to web application frameworks. As a result, the number of web creators is rapidly expanding.
Spatial computing
Spatial computing refers to a technology that combines VR and AR. Microsoft's HoloLens is an excellent example of what this technology can accomplish. Even if you haven't been able to get your hands on Hololens yet, consider face filters on Instagram as an example of spatial computing.
Decentralization
Developers can leverage online capabilities through a scalable ecosystem enabled by distributed computing and microservices. Moreover, smart contracts and the blockchain empower creators to their own data and products.
Human interface
Users can receive information about their surroundings, use maps, and even build shared AR experiences by simply gazing around at the physical world using a combination of spatial computing and human interface.
Infrastructure
Technological infrastructure is critical for the existence of other layers. It includes 5G and 6G computing to reduce network congestion and improve the network's bandwidth.
Which technology is used in the Metaverse?
The latest development of the Metaverse was made possible due to technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), AR, VR, 3d modeling, and spatial and edge computing.
Artificial intelligence
AI paired with Metaverse technology ensures the Metaverse infrastructure's stability while also delivering actionable information for the upper layers. NVIDIA technologies are a good example of how AI will be crucial in developing digital spaces where social interactions will occur in the Metaverse.
Internet of things
While IoT will allow the Metaverse to study and interact with the real world, it will also serve as a 3D user interface for IoT devices, allowing for a more personalized IoT experience. Both the Metaverse and the Internet of Things will assist organizations in making data-driven judgments with minimal mental effort.
Augmented and virtual reality
The idea of a Metaverse combines technologies like AI, AR and VR to let users enter the virtual world. For instance, virtual items can be embedded in the actual environment using augmented reality technology. Similarly, VR helps immerse you in a 3D virtual environment or 3D reconstruction using 3D computer modeling.
While wearing a virtual reality headset or other gear isn't required in the Metaverse, experts believe VR will become an essential part of the virtual environment. However, it is essential to note that the Metaverse is different from AR and VR. If you are curious to know how you can enter the Metaverse, the answer is that augmented and virtual reality technologies are a way to get into the dynamic 3D digital world.
3D modeling
3D modeling is a computer graphics approach for creating a three-dimensional digital representation of any surface or object. The Metaverse's 3D reality is crucial to ensuring the comfort of its consumers.
A lot of image collecting and graphic design are required to create a 3D world. The 3D graphics in most games like The Sandbox (SAND) provide the impression that the player is actually in the game. The Metaverse needs to be built on the same foundation.
Spatial and edge computing
The practice of leveraging physical space as a computer interface is known as spatial computing. With technologies like the HoloLens, Microsoft is a pioneer in the field of spatial computing in the metaverse space. In contrast, edge computing is a network-based cloud computing and service delivery paradigm. Edge provides end-users with computation, storage, data and application solutions like cloud computing services.
To deliver the same level of experience as in reality, keeping the user interested and immersed in the Metaverse is critical. In light of this, the response time to a user's action should essentially be reduced to a level below what is detectable to humans. By hosting a series and combination of computing resources and communication infrastructures close to the users, edge computing provides quick response times.
What are the challenges of the Metaverse?
Users' cognition, emotions, and behaviors can be influenced by key technologies that enable multiple metaverses.
The expensive cost of equipment is a barrier to the widespread adoption of metaverse technologies that will hopefully be overcome in the future. Morality, physical well-being, health and safety, psychology, ethics, and data privacy are the four areas of risk associated with AR.
On a physical level, users' attention being diverted by location-based AR applications has resulted in dangerous mishaps. Overloading information is a psychological problem that must be avoided. Unauthorized augmentation and fact tampering with prejudiced perspectives are moral dilemmas. Data collection and sharing with third parties is the risk with the most severe privacy ramifications.
Furthermore, Metaverse actors may be enticed to collect users' biometric psychography based on user data emotions, which could be used to make unintentional behavioral assumptions and exacerbate algorithmic bias.
Nausea, motion sickness and dizziness are among the most regularly reported health issues associated with virtual reality. Due to the weight of VR headsets, head and neck strain is a limitation for longer use sessions. Social isolation and withdrawal from real-life activities accompanied by medical issues is also a challenge that hinders the mainstream adoption of the Metaverse.
In addition to the above, sexual harassment again women in the Metaverse is also a big problem, as evident from a gang rape case where the victim explained that men groped her avatar and sexually assaulted her. So, who is responsible for ensuring that women are safe in virtual worlds? Meta, for example, claims that it provides users with tools to help them to stay safe, effectively shifting the responsibility to them.
Therefore, users need to understand the risk-return trade-offs of participating in immersive environments, be aware of cyber threats and conduct their own research before entering into the Metaverse.