What’s all the hype about the Metaverse?
The Metaverse is on the way and here is everything you need to know to understand what it is
We are here to present some aspects related to the Metaverse. First, with a historical view, to move on to a conceptual and theoretical explanation, and finally give a slightly more technical view. We will explain its characteristics and properties through examples and talk about the technology and devices that support it. We will close the article giving a vision of how IBM is already working on this type of experience.
What is the Metaverse?
The word that is fashionable and on everyone’s lips, etymologically speaking comes from “metauniverse”, which decomposes into “meta” -beyond- and “verse” -universe-. Therefore, we can say that the metaverse represents that which transcends the universe as we know it to go one step further.
The Associaton for Computing Machinery defines in 2021 the metaverse as the next generation of the Internet, and if we look at the novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, in 1992, it defines it as: An immersive and multisensory experience in the use of various devices and technological developments on the Internet.
A metaverse is an environment where humans interact socially and economically as avatars in a cyberspace, acting as a metaphor for the real world, but without any physical or economic limitations.
When did it all start?
It seems a modern concept, but the metaverse as a concept was born from the already mentioned science fiction novel Snow Crash, where it is defined not as an evolution of Virtual Reality but as something beyond it.
In 2021, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, announced that the company changed its name to Meta. Their plan is to bring together Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram functionalities to be consumed from the Metaverse allowing users to interact not only with other people, but also with the environment and objects available there.
The purpose is that users can create their own avatars to freely:
- Be who they want to be.
- Look as they want to look.
- Be when they want to be.
- Be where they want to be.
Meta said that there will be known experiences, but also new ones that today we may not even know or imagine. One of their main concerns is maintaining the users privacy and therefore be able to guarantee the security of everyone’s information.
They also announced the launch of the Horizon Workrooms Open Beta. A tool that facilitates collaboration between work team members.
Although there are still many doubts about the operation of the “virtual office”, this represents the first launch in the implementation of the metaverse that Zuckerberg envisions. Horizon Workrooms allows you to organize virtual meetings remotely, as if people were in the same room. It can be accessed from your computer/smartphone as a web video call or through Oculus Quest 2 devices, as an avatar.
How does it work?
The concept of metaverse has a series of needs to exist, among which we have:
- Web technology: Without web technology it is not possible that the metaverse exists.
- Virtual, augmented, or mixed reality technology, because it is the way we should achieve the capacity of multisensory.
- At least, there are 3 dimensions: All elements must have at least coordinates on the X, Y and Z axes, property which indicates where they are positioned.
- Avatars: They are the representation of the user within the space. These users can be human, also known as players, or non-human. In that case they are called NPC’s, acronym for Non-Player Characters.
What are its features?
Every metaverse has three fundamental characteristics. The metaverse is:
- Persistent: even if there are no connected users, the universe does not stop. The system is always up and running.
- Corporeal: it is governed by physical laws and has limited resources, but they do not have to be the same laws and resources of the real world. In addition, the avatars are governed by these laws and depend on the resources available to a greater or lesser extent.
- Interactive: Users can communicate with each other within the mechanics that the metaverse provides and must also allow to interact with the environment. The actions carried out with other users or with the environment can be perceived by other users and have influence.
Experiences that are considered Metaverses:
WORLD OF WARCRAFT
Most multiplayer online games can be thought of as metaverses, even though they focus on the narrative of the game rather than the social aspect or commerce within the experience.
In this sense, World of Warcraft could be understood as a metaverse where you can interact with the environment in their PVE (Player Versus Environment) activities, or interact with other users in their PVP (Player Versus Player) activities.
SECOND LIFE
This experience is much more focused on socializing. Second Life pioneered the creation of virtual worlds, and possibly is one of the earliest examples of metaverses. It was the first world where the first NFT, Non Fungible Token, was launched.
In Second Life you can do a lot of activities such as: live music concerts, shopping experiences, discos, change your appearance, take photos and share them, participate in discussion groups, perform meditation activities, visit art galleries and museums, watch a movie in the cinema, have pets, go fishing or participate in casual games, among other options.
Fun fact: The GDP generated by second life is higher than the one generated by some real countries.
GOOGLE TOOLS
We can consider Google Earth and Google Street Maps as metaverses in which the goal is to faithfully represent the real world. These types of experiences are referred to as “mirror worlds”.
The main difference between them is the way users are represented and the laws that govern.
- In Google Earth, the user is represented by a bird flying indefinitely around the globe without ever landing on the ground. This experience has been created using aerial and/or satellite imagery.
- In Google Street View, the user is represented by a human walking and moving freely around the world. For the creation of this experience, 360º cameras have been used.
Pokémon GO!
Pokémon Go! can also be understood as a metaverse. In this case, the real world is represented and its physical laws apply. However, additional information is added through the use of AR technology. Here, avatars behave like humans whose role is a “Pokémon Trainer” who can interact with other players and virtual creatures called “Pokémons”.
NFTs and their role in the Metaverse
In this world, there are fungible and non-fungible properties.
- A fungible property is one that can be exchanged, having a value based on its number, measure, or weight (money).
- Non-fungible goods are those that are not replaceable (such as artworks).
Tokens are technological units of value. Cryptocurrencies are tokens, but fungible.
NFTs are unique assets that cannot be modified or exchanged since there aren’t two equivalent NFTs just as there are no two equal paintings. You could get a copy but it wouldn’t have the value, since it is not the original.
NFTs are mostly being used to buy: digital art, houses, offices, land and designer clothes. Everything is susceptible to being “tokenized”: from a newspaper column to a tweet. Two examples:
- G.E.N.O.M.A Cards is a collection of NFTs represented by limited edition collectible cards, all connected to each other, and generated by a genetic algorithm. (Buy one on www.genoma-cards.com)
- The Twitter founder, Jack Dorsey, sold his first Tweet as a NFT for $2.9 million.
Augmented..Virtual..Mixed..Extended..Reality?
Real Reality (RR) and Xtended Reality (XR)
This is our Physical reality, our real world. Our senses allow us to interact with the environment and with other beings, as we can touch, see, smell, listen..
All realities other than physical reality are considered extended realities.
Augmented Reality (AR)
Augmented Reality allows you to experience a view of the real world while overlapping 3D objects or artificially added information in real time.
Virtual Reality (VR)
Virtual Reality allows you to experience an immersion in a totally imaginary world, where all reality is formed by 3D and therefore the user is isolated from real reality.
Augmented Virtuality (AV)
Augmented Virtuality combines elements of augmented reality and virtual reality, through hardware (such as Oculus) or objects that are part of the real world but have a representation in the virtual world.
Other experiences that go a little further are those that have been developed so that the user moves through a real physical space that represents a movement within the virtual experience, as well as that can interact with physical objects that have a representation in the virtual world.
Mixed Reality (MR)
AR +AV experiences are also known as Mixed Reality, because they combine the real world with virtual elements to a greater or lesser extent.
What devices can you use?
Devices based on glasses and additional hardware are the most plausible to access what is currently understood as metaverse. The recommended time of use of this type of glasses ranges between 15–30 mins, as more time can produce harmful effects.
Two of the most known devices are Oculus Quest and Hololens, despite other devices available in the market. Let’s have a quick look at them:
Oculus Quest 2
The Oculus brand of autonomous devices for Virtual Reality experiences was acquired by Meta for $2.000 million in 2014. The recognition of the user’s hands and gestures is carried out through hardware controls that the user needs to hold during usage.
Price: $350-$600 depending on the model.
Microsoft Hololens 2
Hololens 2 is the mixed reality device created by Microsoft. Their software and cameras make glasses able to recognize movements and gestures with no hardware needed in your hands. This makes them very interesting for experiences in industrial environments where manual work is performed.
Price: $4500
How to deceive the brain?
We cannot ignore the importance of creating a good, smooth experience. The goal is to deceive the brain and generate a sense of presence.
We can do it through the senses and experiences, such as touching, tasting, hearing, temperature, balance, proprioception (how we feel ourselves within the experience) or nociception (how we perceive that there are potentially dangerous things for us).
Deceiving the brain is very complicated since it is the most complex organ of the human being. However, in order to generate a sense of presence, and therefore a good multisensory experience, we must apply two concepts:
- Immersion: remove the user sensations of physical reality and replace them with sensations of simulated reality. (For ex: the use of headphones that are totally isolating from real-world sounds, and that have the ability to represent sounds directed from 360º directions to the user’s position.)
- Grounding: is ensuring that the user’s own elements such as their own hands, objects they perceive or surfaces have a direct influence on the simulated experience. (For ex: when grabbing a virtual object, the hardware of his hands exerted a downward force and thus be able to give a feeling of weight proportional to the object he grabs.)
Immersion + grounding = presence of the user in the experience. The greater the feeling of presence, the better the overall experience will be.
How can all of this impact the world nowadays?
Today, there are multiple scenarios in which virtual experiences and the metaverse can make sense and be undeniably useful:
- Simulation of dangerous situations in a controlled environment with the aim of training future professionals before facing this type of situation. For example, fire simulation and extinguishing techniques practice for firefighter’s training or any Manufacturing process.
- Transport Industry: Simulation of scenarios with changing conditions. For example: driving vehicles, ships, or aircrafts in various conditions.
- Combat and military: Training based on practice and repetition, for example, in military environments.
- Architecture, engineering and construction: Interactive teaching in areas of mechanical engineering, or training in the use of heavy machinery or cranes without the need to cause accidents at field.
- Science, Medicine and surgery: Experiences where it is useful to visualize what another user is seeing from distance.
What are we doing at IBM?
At IBM, we are working on experiences related to the metaverse:
- VR-Lab: Hosted at Mozilla hubs, users can choose an avatar and join the VR-Lab to meet and discuss, where an IBM Quantum computer representation is placed. You can access with your computer or VR device. (Try at: https://hubs.mozilla.com/XhEd2nZ/vr-lab)
- VR-Broadcast: this space is more oriented to be a place for conferences, such as a virtual auditorium.(Try it: https://hubs.mozilla.com/fCMSzhf/ibm-vr-broadcast)
- FriXdays Museum: this VR experience has been developed with Unity by the Spanish IBM iX XR team, and created for IBM iX employees to vote for the best FriXday’s virtual conference during Covid-19 lockdown in 2020. (Try it at: https://frixdays-anniversary.web.app)
A Future World Without Laws?
The metaverse will change the way we act, socialize, work and live our lives, as it can offer education, research, work, leisure, art, religion, sport, science, economics, etc.
However, the metaverse also raises legal, ethical, moral, and other implications that are not yet regulated by any specific framework. This opens many questions, challenges and problems that we cannot answer today such as:
- Availabilty and recoverability: How to guarantee that the metaverse does not cease to exist, does not stop, or does not become corrupted? Will there be backups of the metaverse? Who will store them, where, and how would they be accessed? Under what conditions can they be used?
- Governance: Who controls the metaverse? Will it be democratically elected? What power will the person or company that directs it have? Should it be one person or company?
- Statistics: Will statistical data be collected from users? For what purposes will this data be used and what kind will it be? Who can see this data and up to what level of detail will it reach?
- Social: Will there be new social norms or codes of conduct in the metaverse? Will they affect the relationships or codes of conduct of the physical world? How?
- Security: Could there be computer viruses that kill a metaverse? Would there be a chance that a ransomware would hijack a metaverse? What will the cybercriminals of the metaverse look like? Will the acts of the metaverse be punished in the physical world? Who sets those laws? How are they applied?
- Privacy: How will the security of the information generated in the metaverse be managed? Can this information be used in the real world? By who?
- Politics: How is society, space, or the territory of the metaverse going to be organized? Will there be countries or worlds? Will it be a democracy?
- Economy: What will be the economy that governs the metaverse? What currencies will there be? Will they be owned by any person, company, organization or government? Could you get to live on the metaverse?
- New problems: How are we going to prevent people from becoming addicted to the metaverse or ruining themselves in it? Are we prepared to treat those addiction problems?
And… That’s all folks!
In my opinion, we are currently living on the first day, or even zero-day, of something that we are calling metaverse, but there are still a lot of things to define, learn, discover, and decide. The future has become really interesting, and a lot of companies are investing in “metaverse-related” experiences, so let’s see what is about to come!
Thank you
Mario Gijón
Do you want to have your own avatar? Nowadays, one of the possibilities to represent an avatar is to use the .glb format. For example, the website readyplayer.me allows the creation and free download of avatars in this format to be used in other experiences if desired.
