Understanding the Metaverse
Friends, thank you very much for taking out time
from your busy schedule to read my blog(s). Sharing knowledge with you has
become my passion now. I feel encouraged after reading your feedback in the
comments. Today I’m happy to present my 91st Blog
“Understanding the Metaverse”.
Dear Friends, way back in 1992, author
Neal Stephenson published his breakthrough novel, SNOW CRASH, a cyberpunk
exploration of then futuristic technologies, mobile computing, virtual reality,
wireless internet, digital currency, Smartphones and augmented – reality
headsets.
25 years later, Stephenson’s cult has
become canon in silicon valley – San Jose, California, USA, where a host of
engineers, entrepreneurs, futurists, and assorted computer geeks still revere
SNOW CRASH as a remarkably prescient vision of today’s tech landscape. Among
the prophetic inventions in the book is something Stephenson called ‘ The
Metaverse” the same sort of wireless, online virtual – reality experience that
Facebook, Google, Samsung, and practically every other major tech company are
now competing to commercialize.
Since then, there have been advancements
in the field of AR, VR, and gaming. Second life i.e. vast 3 – D Generated
virtual World and platform filled with user – generated content where people
can interact with each other in real –time, was considered as the first
representation of the Metaverse as it allowed users to build communities in
virtual spaces since 2003. With the creation of VR glasses, the concept of
virtual worlds gained colossal momentum.
Meta is one of the tech companies that
understood the importance of the Metaverse very early. Once again, in
late 2021, the Metaverse gained tremendous momentum when Mark Zuckerberg
announced the rebranding of his company and changed his parent company’s name
to Meta from Facebook, expanding the scope of their virtual offerings in
Metaverse world in the future. After this incident, the Metaverse is seen as
the latest paradigm shift for the internet and has become one of the household
technological concepts.
To simply put, a Metaverse is a VR world
in a VR universe, where one can build avatars/appearances, communities,
alternate realities, or lifestyles. Any brand can create its own virtual world,
so there can be any number of Metaverse. In the same way, smaller brands can
rent or lease spaces from other corporates’ virtual worlds. The Metaverse can
theoretically virtually replicate any activity that is possible in the real
world. There can be various user experiences, including education,
entertainment, gaming, business, e-commerce, research and social gatherings.
Functions of VR, AR and MR in
Metaverse
Metaverse is a much broader concept than just virtual
gaming, and it’s a combination of Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR),
Mixed Reality (MR), Blockchain, Web-03, Crypto Currency, Social Media and much
more, therefore, while VR, AR and MR are one of the most important elements of
the Metaverse, which essentially offer the users a 3D immersive virtual
experience.
Dear friends, let’s understand the concept of Metaverse.
Virtual
Reality (VR):
Virtual Reality refers to a 3-D and computer-generated
virtual environment either to replicate a real environment or an imaginary
world, which is created by a combination of realistic sounds, images and other
sensations through devices like VR headsets / helmets, gloves and body
detectors equipped with sense detectors. A person is able to immerse and
interact within that environment. VR can bring people closer by shortening the
distance, even between people across the world virtually.
Augmented
Reality (AR):
Augmented Reality is a live view of a physical
environment with its elements augmented by the digital sensory input like
sound, graphics, videos or GPS data. In
other words, Augmented Reality exists on top of our physical world by allowing
users to see the actual environment through the screens of their Smart Phones /
Tablets or by using smart glasses and making virtual changes to it on the
screen. Through the cameras of smart phones / tablets or the smart glasses, the
apps can put an overlay of the digital content into our actual environment.
This technology doesn’t account for users’ surroundings or requires interaction
with users’ space; it rests on top of any surface, with our physical world
acting as a static background for it.
Mixed
Reality (MR):
Mixed Reality is sometimes referred to as hybrid
reality. It is the merging of the
virtual and physical worlds to produce a new environment where interactions
among virtual and physical objects are enabled in real-time. Unlike Virtual
Reality, which immerses the users in a totally virtual environment, or
Augmented Reality, which simply over layers digital content on top of the
physical environment without considering its unique and changing composition,
instead, Mixed Reality devices constantly gather new information happening in
the surroundings. Such information is very helpful for being able to seamlessly
place digital content in the physical environment, and users can interact with
it. Mixed Reality blends both virtual and physical worlds together where the
virtual and physical are intertwined.
As per Gartner,
Elements of A Metaverse are Digital Currency, Market Place / Digital Commerce,
Nonfungible Tokens (NFTs), Infrastructure, Devise Independence, Gaming, Digital
Assets, Concerts – Social & Entertainment Events, Online Shopping,
Workplace, Social Media, Digital Humans, and Natural Language Processing (NLP).
Metaverse
provides new opportunities to engage the audience and provide a richer, more
complete, and immersive content experience. If we want to stay ahead of the
curve in this ever-changing landscape, we need to start creating content for
the Metaverse today through content marketing and effective PR. Each strategy
has advantages, but they all boil down to the same basic principle: telling
compelling stories that are worth sharing through any medium available,
including the Metaverse.
As
mentioned above, the concept of the Metaverse has been around for almost two
decades. Still, it has only gained mainstream attention over the last couple of
years with the rise of immersive technologies such as virtual reality and
augmented reality. While the Metaverse is still in its early stages of
development, it holds great potential for enterprise brands and their
customers.
The Metaverse could be a new place to
hold product demos or virtual press conferences for brands. It can also serve
as a virtual customer care department. With its ability to immerse users in a
realistic, digital environment, the Metaverse has the potential to revolutionize
the way businesses operate and communicate with their constituencies.
According
to a report from Tech Republic, 91% of enterprise companies are already using
or planning to adopt Metaverse-related technology i.e. Augmented Reality and
Virtual Reality in the coming years with the following use cases:
§ 60% are using it to supplement production
and labor
§ 53% are using it for customer care
§ 53% for design & product engineering
§ 26% are using it for corporate training
To conclude;
As the Metaverse continues to evolve, we
will likely see even more brands exploring its potential as a way to create new
and improved customer experiences.
Last but not least; brands need to
consider data privacy and security carefully. Since the Metaverse is built on
top of the internet, it inherits the same risks as managing an e-commerce site
or a Facebook page. Brands must protect their and customers’ data from hackers
and cyber threats when planning to switch over to Metaverse.
Thank You for reading the blog.
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A good introduction to the concept of Metaverse and its applications in the present world. Am sure most readers will find this very useful.
ReplyDeleteA beautiful experience of traveling through lanes and by lanes of VR, AR and MR etc. A comprehensive experience of mind boggling to conceptualization. You have made it so interesting and explained in such a lucid way that nothing left for understanding.
ReplyDeleteVery informative and futuristic view of the Metaverse given
ReplyDeleteby PR Guru Suresh Gaur ji. It gives a detailed perp into it history and journey to be an internet loaded business environment.
True, it will change or overhaul d way business, trade is done today. I have some doubts, customers will be at the mercy of such companies... Customer complaints, after service and redressal of complaints, because most adv. payments, bring ops for cheats... 🙏
Understanding the Metaverse is very nicely articulated and analysed article. Besides, it is very insightful. Keep up the good show of educating the masses through such a wonderful blog!
ReplyDelete