“A speech with magical force. Nowadays, people don’t believe in these kinds of things. Except in the metaverse, that is, where magic is possible..” These are the words of Neal Stephenson, the man who introduced the concept of metaverse through his science fiction novel – Snow Crash.
The futuristic idea in the 1992 novel is now becoming a reality.
Ever since the legendary Mark Zukerberg announced Meta as Facebook’s new name, the world is excitedly waiting to immerse in a virtual and augmented reality digital setup – One where you can celebrate birthdays with your friends online in a virtual reality setup, One where you can experience the thrills and adrenaline rush of a virtual football game, and much more.
But what is metaverse, and why is there hype about it? How does it add value to technological innovators like you? This article answers all your questions.
Read on to know all about one of the coolest and newest products of the digital era – Metaverse.
What is Metaverse?
Metaverse is a virtual space where the digital twins meet. Simply put, it is a digital reflection of reality. You can imagine it as a simulated digital environment to make you feel like you are living it using the power of Augmented and virtual reality, blockchain, and social media.
So, is every virtual environment metaverse?
What makes metaverse different from others is that it is an interactive, immersive and experiential digital 3D environment.
AR and VR – The pillars of the metaverse
In both Augmented and virtual reality, there is a strong immersive sense that you feel in the first person. These two elements are primarily responsible for creating an interoperable metaverse space.
NFT – The security element in the metaverse
Another crucial element of the metaverse is NFT- a term that you often associate with cryptocurrency. However, NFT uses blockchain and opens the door for ideal access to data in the metaverse realm. This further offers huge business opportunities for technological innovators like you.
NFT safeguards the value of your virtual products and protects their individuality. It creates a link between you and your products. This way you never lose ownership over a product, even when there are duplicates in the virtual space.
HAPTICS – The virtual simulator in the metaverse
HAPTICS or 3D touch is responsible for the life-like immersive element in the metaverse. It uses forces and vibrations to stimulate the senses of touch and motion. It also bridges the gap between the real and virtual world through simulations.
All of these elements co-exist in the metaverse, especially in the gaming industry. Haptics and AR/VR work together to create a truly immersive gaming experience in the metaverse.
The not-so-new metaverse
If you think that metaverse is a new technology, you may be wrong. The concept dates back to 1838 when Sir Charles Wheatstone introduced “binocular vision, which combines two images to make a 3D image.
Another remarkable mention of metaverse over the past years is in the 1935 book Pygmalion’s spectacles. Here the author Stanley Weinbaum beautifully narrates how the protagonist of the book explores the 3D world through goggles that simulate the primary sense – touch, smell, sight, and sound.
Today, the technological rise in the metaverse has led to the development of high-end web 3.0 technology. This cutting-edge development tool makes the metaverse highly immersive and interactive.
Some of the popular metaverses are Facebook, Decentraland, Dominium Space, and the Sandbox. Most of the metaverse platforms are single-layered and divided into grids to provide users with interactive content.
Why Metaverse matters?
Metaverse blurs the lines between the digital and physical world. It is most probably the next iteration in the world of the internet. However, the feasibility of the metaverse greatly depends on the activities that run in silos in a single shared space.
Metaverse helps you to create interactive applications for your users where they can:
- Shop on e-commerce websites like they were shopping in real-world retail stores.
- Purchase digital arts and NFTs.
- Interact with customer service through virtual face-to-face communication through digital avatars.
- Participate in virtual social events
These are just a glimpse of what you can do in the metaverse. The business opportunities in the metaverse are more than this. With metaverse, you can leverage decentralization, interoperability, and collaboration to create strategic models to expand your digital business capabilities.
Some of the prominent business opportunities in the metaverse
- Immersive learning experiences
- Integrated Virtual events
- Improved employee engagement activities
- Experiential shopping
- Effective social media interaction
How does Metaverse impact the future of technology?
Today, the metaverses of different companies operate individually. However, with groundbreaking technological developments, these metaverses might get interested in the coming years. The impact of metaverse on the future of technology also depends on the evolution of the internet in the coming years. With 5G becoming a norm, metaverse could soon become an accessible technology.
Some of the important ways in which metaverse would impact the future of technology are:
- Increase in owners of digital assets.
- Creation of virtual walk-in eCommerce store
- Increase in the use of cryptocurrency
- More user-specific, result-driven digital marketing campaigns
“Today, I think we look at the internet. But I think in the future we are going to be in the experiences.”– Mark Zukerberg
Metaverse will play a crucial role in dramatically changing the experience on the web in the future. The idea of a life-like interaction in the online world has motivated businesses to invest in metaverse technologies.
Therefore, if you want to see your business going global and reaping the true benefits of digitalization, now is the time to invest in the future of the internet – The Metaverse.