To answer the question, it’s necessary to understand what Metaverse actually is and why it’s been a hot topic recently?
Metaverse was coined by author Neal Stephenson in his 1992 science fiction novel, “Snow Crash”. In the novel, humans would create their avatars and interact in a 3D simulation of the real world with other avatars and objects. It was perceived as the next step of interaction between humans on the internet.
In simple terms, Metaverse is a combination of various technologies like virtual reality, augmented reality, and video. People can basically “go out” without leaving their couch. A digital universe where they can exist in and interact with other digital avatars. It’s fairly similar to the concept in the bestselling novel, “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline, also adapted to a major motion picture by Stephen Spielberg with the same name. In the movie, people put on their VR headsets, a motion capture technology on an omnidirectional treadmill so they can see, move, feel and interact more immersively to the digital world and if anything happens in the virtual world they will just be pulled back into the real world. It is like waking up from a dream.
But unlike in the movie where the concentration was on games, in the metaverse, it will be daily life routines from meeting friends, going to work, having a party to virtual trips around the world.
Metaverse has been a hot topic since both Facebook and Microsoft staked claims on it. The social media giant Facebook has rebranded the company to Meta, proclaiming it to be more focused on metaverse, and calling it the next step of the internet. Microsoft was already developing mixed and extended reality (XR) applications and plans to bring holograms and virtual avatars to Microsoft Teams in 2022. They are also working to create explorable 3D virtual spaces for retail and the workplace.
As one of the technologies behind the adaptation of metaverse, VR will profit from it. VR’s rise to fame has been a slow one since the inception of the first publicly available VR headset in 2010. The headsets were expensive and with hardware and software limits and the lack of VR compatible content only further delayed its widespread acceptance. But when Facebook bought Oculus in 2014, it started a kind of a technological trigger and since then several startups have been founded that commit to bringing VR to the people. This has led to an exponential increase in the demand for AR/VR courses.
High Fidelity raised $35 million. In June 2018 with a view to introduce VR to one billion people. Linden Labs, the company behind ‘Second Life’, is working on bringing Metaverse to the mainstream with Project Sansar.
With Meta (Facebook) successfully breaking free from the cable constraint of the still bulky Oculus Quest 2 VR headset, it is clear that with increasing advancement in the technology with smaller and faster processors and higher wireless speeds (5G), better visual resolution and untethered experiences will emerge over the next few years.
It remains to be seen who will be the first to create “The Oasis” (from Ready Player One), but one thing is certain — the Metaverse will play a critical role in the future of VR.
And VR is not just limited to the gaming and entertainment industry. It has a variety of enterprise use cases from digital property tours, visual history lessons to a virtual store with front door shipping. And then there is also Mixed Reality, which takes real-world objects and integrates them into virtual reality creating a more seamless experience.
One thing is for sure that VR is just getting started and with all the craze about metaverse and all the money invested in it by big companies, VR will become one of the most important technologies for the next 50 years. For technology buffs, this would be a good time to learn VR and get their skills updated for the real-world future.