The Metaverse – It’s Coming Fast

We’ll hear the word ‘Metaverse’ more often as time passes. It will likely become a household word.

You may know all about it. But, if you don’t, read on. It’s a little mind-blowing for those of us who are somewhat technologically challenged to begin with.

What is the Metaverse?

It has to do with applications of the internet. Some levels of it are currently available, more advanced levels are not.

Here’s how the Wall Street Journal describes the metaverse: “an extensive online world transcending individual tech platforms, where people exist in immersive, shared virtual spaces. Through avatars, people would be able to try on items available in stores or attend concerts with friends, just as they would offline.”

Simply put, the Metaverse is the next mega-phase of the internet, a merging of the physical world with a virtual, computer generated one. It already is having impact, and it expected to grow exponentially and revolutionize the way we interact, work and live.

We might as well start to get used to some of the following acronyms.

Extended Reality (XR) refers to all real-and-virtual environments generated by computer graphics and wearables. The ‘X’ in XR is simply a variable that can stand for any letter. XR is the umbrella category that covers all the various forms of computer-altered reality, including Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), and Virtual Reality (VR).

Many of us are familiar with Virtual Reality (VR). This medium requires the use of a Head-Mounted Device.

It uses either 360-degree real world or total computer-generated synthetic one – or hybrids using both.

There are different forms of VR, those being fully immersive or simply 2-dementional.

Augmented Reality is defined as computer-generated content on the real world. For example, using an IKEA mobile app., we can shop for furniture at home by selecting an item from the catalogue, then, using the camera on our smart phone, place digital furniture anywhere in a given room. The piece of furniture is automatically sized to fit the space and can be moved or rotated within the view of the camera.

MR – Mixed Reality

This removes the boundary of the camera in AR. It provides a whole new level of virtual interaction between real and virtual. Using the furniture example, ‘mapping’ a room allows the option of filling the real, physical room with virtual furniture – in different configurations. A startup company called Occipital is already selling software of this type to make it a reality.

But we can let our minds free in thinking about the possibilities. Several examples pop in my head: think about attending a meeting with other people by everyone involved inserting themselves into a real setting – like sitting at a conference table, or we could have those family members living in Alaska sitting at the dining room table for Thanksgiving dinner.

The vision of the metaverse is a shared virtual 3D world, or worlds, that are interactive, immersive, and collaborative.

Many on-line games use various forms of being interactive and immersive. But the applications and uses of the metaverse are endless. We really don’t know where it will take us or how long it will take to evolve into reality in our everyday lives.

Few could have envisioned the applications of the internet on our private and business lives – but it went from infancy to development and some maturity very quickly.

For example, today we take streaming on the internet for granted. But using streaming means we see few, if any, video rental stores anymore. Not so long ago we needed roof antennas to watch TV. Now we don’t even need ground cables to connect us to our favorite TV shows. We just use our computer modems and routers for that now. In place of that video store, we now have Netflix and other streaming services.

How many of us have been inside the bank we use? We know most of the younger folks have not. They have no need.

AR and MR is currently being used by some companies for projects such as design collaboration and creating “digital twins,” simulations of real-world buildings and factories.

You can also bet our military leaders are using it and will want more of/from it.

Its applications include helping us determine the benefits and consequences of doing something before we actually do it.

To develop and use the many applications of the metaverse – most of which we don’t even know yet – it will require massively more computing power as well as tools and code not yet created or written. Researchers are using holograms in laser beams in the lab to expand the bandwidth of the internet 1000 times what it is now.

But we’re going there – we just don’t know how quickly it will become a necessity like the internet itself.

Technical prognosticators tell us the metaverse will become a platform that’s not tied to any one app or any single place — digital or real. Real objects and identities are already moving through virtual places with AR (Augmented Reality).

They tell us the metaverse will create a new world, a new reality.

I believe it.

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Have a great and prosperous week.

Hug somebody.

References:

https://www.viget.com/articles/xr-vr-ar-mr-whats-the-difference/

https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2021/08/10/what-is-the-metaverse/

https://www.inverse.com/article/16849-information-of-the-future-could-be-sent-by-hologram

SPIDER Bites

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