METAVERSE

PRESENTING BY: GABRIEL BENNY

MATHAI
S4 – MCA A
ROLL NO- 25
Introduction

 The metaverse has been a hot topic of conversation recently,

with Facebook and Microsoft both staking claims. But what is the metaverse?
 Author Neal Stephenson is credited with coining the term "metaverse" in his 1992
science fiction novel "Snow Crash," in which he envisioned life like avatars who met in
realistic 3D buildings and other virtual reality environments.
 Since then, various developments have made mileposts on the way toward a
real metaverse, an online virtual world which incorporates augmented reality, virtual
reality, 3D holographic avatars, video and other means of communication.
 Small versions of the metaverse already exist in online game universes such as Fortnite,
Minecraft and Roblox. And the companies behind those games have ambitions to be part
of the evolution of the metaverse.
 The idea of Metaverse is portrayed in movies such as:
Wreak it Ralph
Ready Player One
Free Guy
What is the metaverse?

 It's a combination of multiple elements of technology, including VR: virtual reality, AR:
augmented reality, XR: extended reality, 3D holographic, digital twin, avatars and video
where users "live" within a digital universe. Supporters of the metaverse envision its users
working, playing and staying connected with friends through everything from concerts
and conferences to virtual trips around to the world.
 It is a digital place inhabited by digital representation of objects, people and places.
 We can think it as a new vision or version of Internet.
 Many of us calls internet as a place. Metaverse is actually a place where we can interact
with like in a physical world. We will be having an identity and look as in real world.
 You can join in a meeting where u can collaborate with your co workers by seeing them
not only as a video but by real.
 You can go to a shopping mall and purchase the products, try out dresses , all by being
inside of our premises. Its really the world in our hands rather than a screen and
keyboard.
What can we do in Metaverse?

 A virtual world: this is, in my opinion, the most important characteristic of a metaverse.

You could explore it using a computer, gaming console, mobile, wearable technology or
other device, experiencing 3D graphics and sound along the way. The idea is that this
makes you feel more present in the metaverse, and presumably less present in the
everyday world (where your body stubbornly remains)
 Virtual reality. You need a virtual reality headset for this. The idea here is that you
become immersed in the virtual world, so you feel even more present – at least until you
bump into something that remains in the everyday world, like the coffee table.
 Other people. The metaverse is social. There are lots of other people there, represented
as avatars. Some of these avatars might be bots, virtual agents and manifestations of
artificial intelligence. You can hang out with the other people or even do things together.
 Researchers believe communication may be more natural than with video conferencing
because, for example, you can use gaze to show who you are addressing (your avatar can
turn its head to look at another person). Your avatar could also walk over and sit next to
someone else’s avatar to start a conversation.
 Persistence. This means the virtual world is available whenever you want to visit it. You
can change it by adding new virtual buildings or other objects and importantly, the
changes remain in place next time you visit. You might be able to take up residence and
own a bit of it. The metaverse will rely on your user-generated content – your digital
creations and personal stories – in the same way social media does today.
 Connection to the real world. In some visions of the metaverse, the virtual stuff in the
virtual world actually represents real stuff in the real world. For example, you might fly a
virtual drone in the metaverse to steer an actual drone in the real world. People talk about
the real and virtual as being “digital twins”.
Activities in Metaverse

 Things like go to a virtual concert, take a trip online, view or create artwork
and try on or buy digital clothing.
 The metaverse also could be a game-changer for the work-from -home shift
amid the coronavirus pandemic. Instead of seeing co-workers on a video call
grid, employees could join them a virtual office.
 Facebook has launched meeting software for companies, called Horizon
Workrooms, to use with its Oculus VR headsets. For those who can afford it,
users would be able, through their avatars to fit between virtual worlds.
 'A lot of the metaverse experience is going to be around being able to teleport from one
experience to another', Zuckerberg says.

 Tech companies still have to figure out how to connect their online platforms to each
other. Making it work will require competing technology platforms to each other.

 Making it work will require competing technology platforms to agree on a set of

standards, so there aren't "people in the Facebook metaverse and other people in the
Microsoft metaverse.
Underlined Technologies

 Augmented Reality
 Virtual Reality
 Extended Reality
 Digital Twins
 3D Holographic
 Life Logging
Augmented Reality

 In augmented reality, Metaverse technologies enhance the external physical world for the
individual, through the use of location-aware systems and interfaces that process and
layer networked information on top of our everyday perception of the world.
 Important aspect of the AR scenario is the interface, the ways and choices users have to
access virtual information overlaid on the physical world. One type of interface is a
heads-up display (HUD), providing context-significant information through a mobile
viewscreen.
 It will be using GPS or similar location access technologies to find location and thus
augment our reality.
Augmented Reality
Extended Reality

 Extended Reality (XR) is an umbrella term that includes all current and future
technology for Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Mixed Reality (M
 All XR tech takes the human-to-PC screen interface and modifies it, either by immersing
you in the virtual environment (VR)or, adds to, or augments, the user’s surroundings
(AR), or both of those (MR and VR), and everything in between.
Virtual Worlds

 Discussion of the Metaverse usually begins with massively multi-user virtual worlds
(VWs), a fast-growing space that is already mixing physical and virtual worlds. The
virtual worlds scenario imagines broad future participation in virtual space commons.
Many new forms of association will emerge that are presently cost-prohibitive in
physical space, and VWs may outcompete physical space for many traditional social,
economic, and political functions
 In the stronger version of this scenario, VWs capture most, if not all, current forms of
digital interaction, from entertainment to work to education to shopping to dating.
Mirror Worlds

 Mirror worlds are informationally-enhanced virtual models or “reflections” of the

physical world. Their construction involves sophisticated virtual mapping, modeling, and
annotation tools, geospatial and other sensors, and location-aware and other lifelogging
(history recording) technologies.
 Virtual model of real world
 The best-known example of a mirror world (MW) is presently Google Earth, a free, web-
based, open-standards digital map of Earth.
 In this regard, new picture-based MWs, like Street View in Google Maps, deliver
compelling visual information. The addition of live camera feeds to popular destinations
will further increase the stickiness of such environments.
 We will be needing automated 3D city model construction software, which converts
digital pictures, video, laser, and embedded environmental inputs into 3D models into
objects in Metaverse.
Life Logging

 Lifelogging is the capture, storage and distribution of everyday experiences and

information for objects and people. This practice can serve as a way of providing useful
historical or current status information, sharing unusual moments with others, for art and
self-expression.
 Lifelogging technologies offer two primary functions: first, they serve as a kind of
"TiVo" for one's life, recording the sights and sounds one encounters throughout the day;
second, they enable collaborative sharing and aggregation of life experiences.
How these combine?

 We need to connect the Mirror world, Virtual World and Augmented Reality in a way that
all these combine to give a better world for the users. We saw an immersion of these
techs in the game Pokémon Go. And they did it well.
 And the incorporation of life logging will help in the development of an interface for
experiencing an enhanced awareness of one's physical and social environment. It also
cause a consistent digital identity allowing for seamless interaction between in-person
and virtual representations of other people. The deep learning will gives our avatars the
characteristic growth of the player making the player and avatar into one.
NFTs, Blockchain, And The Metaverse

 Virtual currencies 
 Let’s start with the most obvious use cases for blockchains in the metaverse –
money! Blockchains – decentralized, distributed databases secured by encryption – are the
foundation of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum. The metaverse promises
to open up a “Ready Player One” type virtual world, where we can play, work and socialize
with our friends in immersive environments without ever leaving our homes, and as usual
there is shopping.
 It’s already possible to use the cryptocurrency Mana to buy plots of virtual real estate within
the Decentraland online reality – in fact, recently, headlines were made when somebody did
just this, to the tune of $2.4 million. As well as land, it will be possible to buy digital versions
of just about anything we can buy in the real world, and probably quite a few things we can’t!
 Gaming 
 Gaming will undoubtedly be one of the most exciting use cases for the metaverse, and
once again, innovation in this space is being driven by blockchain. The Sandbox is a
virtual world where anyone can create their own games and environments and use
the Ethereum-based blockchain currency $Sand to buy and sell digital goods and assets.
 Crypto gaming is already big business and covers both online gaming and crypto gaming.
 NFTs 
 According to many predictions, NFTs – which stands for Non-fungible tokens and was picked as
the word of the year for 2021 by Collins Dictionary – are set to play an important role in the
metaverse. Put as simply as possible, NFTs are tokens that live on a blockchain and can be used to
prove ownership of connected digital assets. Primarily we've seen them used for trading pieces of
digital art, but in theory, they can be connected to anything, including virtual avatars, game assets, and
real estate.
 One of the main functions of NFTs within the metaverse will be to assign value to objects. As anything
that is digital fundamentally exists only as ones and zeros, it can theoretically be duplicated and
distributed an infinite amount of times. NFTs provide a framework for attributing value to
digital objects because they can be used to prove that someone is the rightful owner of a particular
object. 
 Decentralization 
 It’s important to remember that, as with any predictions about the future, no one’s
exactly sure how the metaverse will work just yet. People like Mark Zuckerberg have
their own ideas, of course, and are throwing a lot of money into making them a
reality. But will the reality be a corporate-controlled, centralized metaverse? Or will we
end up with something much more decentralized.
 In truth, it’s likely we will end up with something of each – corporations building and
maintaining their own metaverses where they make the rules, existing alongside publicly-
owned decentralized metaverses.
Linking digital assets to real-world economic activity in the metaverse

 The metaverse is also expected to have a strong connection with the real-world economy
– and eventually become an extension of it.  In other words, the metaverse must have the
ability for companies and individuals to participate in economic activity.
 To a certain extent, this may rely on non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as the foundation for
value creation. A NFT is a claim of ownership for a unique, non-interchangeable digital
asset that is stored on a blockchain. If NFTs become a commonly adopted tool for trading
such goods, they could help accelerate the use of XR ecosystems as places people go to
combine elements of the digital economy with their offline lives.
Examples of Metaverse

 Meta
 Microsoft
 Epic Games
 Roblox
 Minecraft
1. Meta

 The tech giant formerly known as Facebook has already made significant investments in
virtual reality, including the 2014 acquisition of Oculus. 
 Meta envisions a virtual world where digital avatars connect through work, travel or
entertainment using VR headsets. Zuckerberg has been bullish on the metaverse,
believing it could replace the internet as we know it. 
 "The next platform and medium will be even more immersive and embodied internet
where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it, and we call this the metaverse,"
said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg last month after revealing the company's rebranding. 
2. Microsoft

 The software giant already uses holograms and is developing mixed and extended reality
(XR) applications with its Microsoft Mesh platform, which combine the real world with
augmented reality and virtual reality.
 Earlier this month, Microsoft showed off its plans for bringing mixed-reality including
holograms and virtual avatars to Microsoft Teams in 2022.
 Also in the works for next year: explorable 3D virtual connected spaces for retail and
workplaces
3. Roblox

 The platform, founded in 2004, houses scores of user-generated games, including role-

playing offerings like Bloxburg and Brookhaven, where users can build homes, work and
play out scenarios. In March, Roblox founder and CEO David Baszucki tweeted a thank
you to all who helped bring the platform "one step closer to fulfilling our vision of the
Metaverse."
 Since then, Roblox has teamed up with skateboarding shoe company Vans to create Vans
World, a virtual skateboarding park where players can dress up in fresh Vans gear and
opened a limited Gucci Garden, where you can try and buy clothing and accessories for
your virtual self. 
Gadgets for Metaverse

 Haptic gloves
 VR Headsets
 ReSkin
 Wrist-based controllers for AR
 VR Glasses
Haptic Gloves
Haptic Gloves

 In its series of prototype devices, gloves with haptic feedback for VR. These gloves are
meant to make you ‘feel’ grabbing an object or running your hand along a surface in the
virtual world.
 To achieve this, Meta’s engineers have placed newly designed soft actuators. These are
soft motors all over the glove that move in concert to generate physical sensations when
you’re wearing the gloves.
 The gloves also have a microfluid chip to control airflow to move these actuators. Meta
says that this tech will create a sensation in your hand based on the virtual object’s
texture, weight, and stiffness. So technically, you’ll be able to ‘feel’ differently when you
pick up a feather or a metal ball in the virtual world.
VR Headset
VR Headset

 One of the key pieces of stepping into the metaverse is a headset. While Facebook
already has a popular product in Oculus Quest 2
 Their new headset, codenamed Project Cambria, will be a high-end device. Reports have
suggested that this might be the rumored Oculus Pro with a powerful processor, high-
resolution screen, and improved hand tracking.
 Other popular Headsets are
Samsung Gear
Apple Kuo
ReSkin

 Corporates efforts are not just about making us ‘feel’ objects in the virtual world. It’s also
working on making robots feel through artificial skin.
 The company’s AI division worked with researchers from Carnegie Mellon University to
develop a 2-3mm thick tactile sensor named ReSkin.
 ReSkin is capable of detecting forces as low as 0.1 newtons from objects that are 1mm
wide. This makes it an ideal material for robot hands, tactile gloves, or arm sleeves.
 This artificial skin relies on magnetic signals instead of an electrical connection so that
only detecting electronics have to be near the surface.
ReSkin
Wrist-based controllers for AR
Wrist-based controllers for AR

 Apart from VR glasses, you will also need some kind of controller to interact with
objects in AR. In March, Meta showed off wrist-based bands that detect hand
movements.
 These concept wrist bands use electromyography (EMG) to detect electric signals
generated by wrist movements and translate them into commands.
 Initially, this tech will detect gestures such as pinching of fingers and releasing them.
 The company claimed that the tech could detect signals even when your fingers have
moved a millimeter. That could be useful to develop an algorithm that works just on the
intention of the movement.
VR Glasses

 It’s a more sleeker design of a VR Headsets. It doesn’t

has a cardboard design or doesn’t need a smartphone
display.
 It looks similar to a specs, with electronics inside it
Characteristics and challenges of the metaverse

 If all this explains the foundations of the metaverse, it unfortunately cannot predict
exactly what it will look like. Indeed, we’re still in the conceptual stage of the metaverse.
 There are of course questions about what the metaverse will mean for privacy, whether it
will be inclusive, and how to mitigate harmful content and environments that could be
created. Because the metaverse is in the early phases of development, there is an
opportunity now to build in these attributes by design.
 The idea of the metaverse may sound promising, which is why many of the world’s
leading technology companies are investing in its development. If it can come to fruition,
it is conceivable that it will transform consumer and enterprise behavior.
 User addiction and problematic social media use is another concern for the development
of the metaverse. Internet addiction disorder, social media, and video game addiction can
have mental and physical repercussions over a prolonged period of time, such as
depression, anxiety, and obesity. Experts are also concerned that the metaverse could be
used as an 'escape' from reality in a similar fashion to existing internet technologies.
 Users of the metaverse access it through personal terminals that project a high-quality
virtual reality display onto goggles worn by the user, or from grainy black and
white public terminals in booths. The users experience it from a first-person perspective.
Stephenson describes a sub-culture of people choosing to remain continuously connected
to the metaverse; they are given the sobriquet "gargoyles" due to their grotesque
appearance
References

 https://www.computerweekly.com/blog/Quocirca-Insights/The-metaverse-and-the-future-
of-work
 https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/explainer-what-is-the-metaverse-and-how-
will-it-work/articleshow/87352084.cms
 https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/10/facebook-meta-what-is-the-metaverse/
 https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2021/11/10/metaverse-what-is-it-explained-
facebook-microsoft-meta-vr/6337635001/
Thank You