Metaverse is more than just an IT buzzword; it is a fast-growing (virtual) reality that could change our lives shortly. When Facebook changed its name to Meta, it brought attention to the Metaverse.
The big social media company has said it will become the center of the Metaverse. But it would be interesting to see how the digital world grows and changes after such a great beginning.
Metaverse: From a science fiction idea to reality
Neil Stephenson came up with the term for a dystopian digital world where it is no longer possible to live in the real world, and the only place to go is a digital world called the Metaverse. But the real Metaverse is not a replacement for the real world. Instead, it is a combination of the real and virtual worlds that would let people in the digital world realistically talk to each other.
With the help of AR and VR, partnerships that look like the real world would give users the chance to feel things that aren’t always possible in the real world. On Metaverse, it would be possible to work, run, travel, or go shopping, among other things.
The web we use now isn’t as good as it could be in many ways. Metaverse could make up for all of its flaws. Metaverse’s commercially viable, multisensory, and interoperable channel could be the glue that holds all the loose ends of the web together.
AR and VR interact
The Metaverse would be a technology that would combine different parts of AR and VR. On a Metaverse app, space and time would look like they do in the real world. We exchange sounds, sights, and movements when we talk to each other in the real world. People think the Metaverse platform will make a similar possible experience in the digital world to help people work together online.
Interoperability will be a major factor.
People would be more likely to use Metaverse quickly if applications could work on more than one platform. This would give users operational flexibility and speed up adoption. But interoperability also would depend on who made the app, whether it was a Metaverse-focused start-up or a big company with a long history.
Many toolkits can help make this future a reality. Unreal Engine, Amazon’s Sumerian, Maya, Unity, and Blender are some of the most well-known developer toolkits.
According to a report by Bloomberg Intelligence, the Metaverse tech market will reach $800 billion by 2025 and will likely pass $2.5 trillion by 2030. Different parts of the industry are responding in a big way, which could change virtual reality technology and the future.
Major players and what they are doing in the Metaverse
Every big tech company is getting on board with the Metaverse. Different sizes and shapes of meta colonies are spreading their wings in preparation for a flight into the future. Several companies are working on Metaverse projects that could lead the way for this kind of tech.
Microsoft, NVidia, Facebook, Epic Games, and now Appinventiv are just a few big companies that have already entered the field. Even though they are all working on Metaverse, their products, and the effects they will have will be different. In the future, there will likely be more than one small Metaverse colony.
Technologies that help the Metaverse
Some of the most well-known technologies that help shape Metaverse are blockchain, augmented reality, and virtual reality.
Blockchain and digital currencies
People have started to think of cryptocurrencies as a useless use of blockchain technology that had no real use until recently. But the appearance of the Metaverse is making things different.
Digital currencies can make buying and selling things in virtual worlds easier. Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) can be used to prove ownership and authenticity, and the blockchain can verify the value, store it, and transfer it in the Metaverse.
AR and VR
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are needed for the Metaverse to exist and grow. AR works through three main methods: interacting in real time, showing objects in 3D, and combining physical and virtual environments.
AR apps are better than VR apps because they can be used on any device that has a camera. A lot of people take them in. AR doesn’t need extra wearables for consumers to see how useful it is.
VR gives you the feeling of being in a completely made-up digital world. With VR, users can have sensory experiences similar to what they would have in real life.
VR costs more than AR and needs extra tools like a head-mounted showcase or multimodal projection screen(s). Extended reality (XR) is what users would experience when they use Metaverse VR apps, which are a mix of AR and VR.
AI, ML, 3D re-creation, and IoT
Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, 3D reconstruction, and the Internet – Of – things will greatly affect Metaverse technology. When IoT, AI, and ML work together with the internet, they can make data integration and interactions seamless and limitless, which will be a must in the Metaverse.
Metaverse isn’t widely used because of problems.
At the moment, Meterverse does not have a super-moderator or a regulator. If a group is ever put together to make rules, it would be interesting to see how digital identities are verified and how privacy is controlled. All big companies and countries need to work together to solve these problems.
To protect data, it’s important to add extra layers of security. Governments have to act before it’s too late. The Metaverse would change our lives in ways we can’t even imagine. Metaverse would help people overcome our dreams that we can’t do in real life because it would help us live beyond reality.
Major tech companies are trying to get a piece of this evolving technology. If they are successful, users will have a lot of choices and won’t be forced to use only a few. But at the moment, Metaverse is like the internet of the 1990s: it needs to make a few big leaps forward before many people use it.
