Overview of Metaverse

Earlier the idea to be part of a simulated world used to sound really crazy. Metaverse with a significant shift in approach and use of technology brings the hope to achieve shared virtual world which could impact our real life in numerous ways.

The thought of whether to get involved to decide, being part of something which has the power to change the way of living significantly, tremendously excites everyone. Question is whether Metaverse has that potential to achieve something like that or still a long way to go?

Top organizations are already involved to explore it significantly. Gartner expects that by 2026, 25% of people will spend at least one hour a day in the Metaverse for work, shopping, education, social media and/or entertainment. The idea to attend an event with real time communication by allowing people to appear in a holographic manner and have possession of shared content, makes it very interesting. The 3D capture technology makes it capable to send life like images to such events.

Adoption of technologies supporting the existence to metaverse could lead to endless possibilities. Gartner named metaverse one of the top five emerging trends for 2022. Global spending on VR/AR and core technologies related to Metaverse, is expected to rise from $12 billion in 2020 to $72.8 billion in 2024.

Question is how or will the rise of the metaverse going to impact the average businesses?

What is Metaverse?

It is a shared simulated world where our digital twin gains the main prominence to perform various activities. Overall, the experience is so mesmerizing that it completely encapsulates the difference between reality being digital. As part of it one creates a digital twin of him\herself and takes part in various activities offered by the that simulated world. There are other digital avatars as well representing people who in parallel take part in those activities. Additionally, it creates an independent virtual economy, enabled by digital currencies and nonfungible tokens. So, this way one carries their own virtual personality on this simulated environment which makes everything pretty interesting. Tech capabilities which are the backbone for a Metaverse implementation includes Flexible work styles, Augmented Reality(AR), Head mounted displays (HMDs), Spatial Technologies, AR Cloud, 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), NFTs, and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Possibilities with Metaverse

• To start with, we can imagine our digital twin to have a seamless experience of attending a full concert using VR headsets as if it is happening just in front of our eyes
• Similarly, one can think of to attend next zoom call in similar manner. During this conversation we can see our friends’ avatar in front of us
• Additionally, one can experience visiting a virtual store with their friends or colleagues, pick up clothes of varied fashion labels and try it using each other’s digital avatars

Why Metaverse is getting popular now?

Blockchain technology has revolutionized the thought to have a decentralized world with trust-less system. Its feature to collaborate multiple parties with each other, without any intermediary has enabled the possibilities to sell various digital artifacts (i.e., music, paintings, art etc.). People have started to own and invest on digital assets by paying a significant price for it. Thus, the economy around digital assets are growing in a significant pace. It enables one to think of following possibilities:

• Purchasing digital land, build virtual homes and commercial spaces
• Purchasing collectibles, digital art and assets (NFTs)
• Using their digital twin one can get an immersive commerce experience on virtual malls
• Immersive learning experience in virtual classrooms using our digital twin
• Interacting with human avatars for onboarding employees, customer service, sales etc.
• Shopping outfits and accessories for online avatars

Strategic Foundations of Metaverse

Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality Hardware

As we know Metaverse is highly dependent on a highly immersive experience supported by both AR & VR. It comprises of various below listed hardware gadgets.

• Smart glasses
• Touch sensitive Gloves
• VR Headsets
• 3D Hologram Projectors

Blockchain & Cryptocurrency

To acquire, sell or hold digital assets on Metaverse one has utilize Blockchain and crypto currencies. It brings the perfect foundation for enablement of decentralized financial infrastructure on Metaverse. Already crypto exchanges are widely accepted to perform trade on crypto currencies. Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) enable the power to own a virtual property or asset on a Metaverse.

5G Networks

To achieve an amazing virtual world experience, Metaverse would require ultrafast and reliable low latency networks. So 5G would play a critical role to enable this experience.

Cloud Infrastructure

Metaverse brings the need to store, process and consume huge amounts of data. To meet one definitely will rely on cloud infrastructure as it would bring high scalability, efficient storage, bandwidth and computational power.

Virtual Realisation Design Tools

Metaverse would bring a huge demand for engines which can provide real time generation of 3D graphics. To build visual elements for Metaverse, designers would require animated visual effect tools and 3D design engines.

Chipset Processors

Huge investments are promised by top chip manufacturers to support Metaverse. Metaverse will demand for massive processing and computation requirements

Conclusion

It is expected to have a rapid evolution of the components around Metaverse. But it is definitely recommended to have incremental investment to explore this landscape.

Coforge is actively exploring various aspects of Metaverse and collaborating with platforms like Microsoft Mesh, Virbela etc. There are multiple platforms on Blockchain, AI, VR on which various use cases are been implemented at Coforge. Let’s innovate together to explore various intricacies of Metaverse to have an exciting future.