The Metaverse is that ever-growing, evolving virtual reality we’re all familiar with. We can’t speak to it and touch it like we can with the real world, but its impact is felt by those who have the luxury of entering it. It’s an ethereal existence that motivates people to create new things and inspires innovation – in short. It’s changing society for the better.
It’s difficult to say exactly; what this means for society as a whole, but there are plenty of early indicators, from businesses taking on metaverse design processes in their everyday work to a surge in interest from members of academia.
How Does Metaverse Change The World?
It allows us to do things that otherwise would be impossible or simply hadn’t even been considered possible. The graph below indicates how big the jump from 2020 to 2028 will be for the metaverse market.
The technology that powers the metaverse has been around for a number of years, but it’s only in recent times that it’s become fully developed enough to enter mainstream society. As such, it may well continue to grow at an exponential rate as more people from a wide variety of backgrounds begin to utilize its potential.
It is a community that values creativity and innovation above all else. As such, it is unlikely to stop evolving until it reaches its ultimate goal: total immersion in virtual space.
It is difficult to say exactly what will happen when this level of immersion is achieved. While we don’t yet know the full extent of all that’s possible in VR, the possibilities are endless. From playing a part in real-world climate change to becoming a player, there’s no telling where the metaverse will take us.
However, there is one thing that everyone can agree on: as our technological capabilities grow, so too does our potential for affecting the world around us.
With that said, there are plenty of ways to improve this society – from being safe online to protecting ourselves from cybercrime at home and work and ensuring our privacy on social networks – it’s important for everyone to be aware of what their options are when it comes time for them to take action.
How Is The Metaverse Changing Our lives?
The Metaverse technology used to simulate virtual environments has a long history. Many decades ago, it was rudimentary in its construction: a pair of flat panels, a computer, and a single monitor. This was known as Head Mounted Display.
1. Physical Augmented Reality
Then came Physical Augmented Reality (PAR), which involved superimposing virtual images over your real-world view – these were known as head-mounted displays, such as Google Glass and Microsoft’s HoloLens. These were limited in their use but still had potential.
However, now we are able to utilize Mixed Reality (MR), which is an amalgamation of the previous two types of AR. By combining augmented and virtual reality together we can create a totally new type of experience – one that brings the best of both worlds together into one world.
2. Metaverse Education
The Metaverse isn’t just another technology – it’s something that can actually affect our lives in meaningful ways. Whether it’s in the way we communicate with each other, allowing us to freely express our emotions, or even how we can utilize the metaverse in education, there’s so much that this new technology can offer.
As such, many people are already looking at new ways to utilize the metaverse for a variety of reasons.
3. Virtual Marketplace
There are a number of possibilities – from creating a virtual marketplace where you can buy products and services to changing your appearance in the metaverse to how you look in real life.
While you might have to wait for a bit before this becomes a reality, it’s possible that the technology we’ll use to create it is already here. One of the most obvious ways in which we can utilize VR is by using it as an educational tool.
For example, schools are currently using tools that provide mixed reality simulations allowing children to interact with virtual worlds in a safe environment without fear of harm. Schools are also using the technology therapeutically, allowing children to learn more about their emotions and how they can be managed effectively.
4. Medical Industry Usages
While companies like Microsoft have been busy on the AR/MR front, others have been busy integrating AR into various industries.
The medical industry is one such field – surgeons are able to clearly see a patient’s anatomy while they perform surgery, while pharmaceutical companies can create and utilize augmented reality interfaces to understand the drug-body interactions better.
A metaverse is a useful tool for an array of different fields – one that will continue to be developed as AR/MR technology evolves in the years ahead.
Technologies Still In Their Early Developing Stages
While it’s true that people have been able to use AR/MR technology for some time now, it has only recently become a viable tool in the home. Google’s Cardboard, for example, is an inexpensive VR viewer that utilizes your smartphone as a display.
Merge that with Google Street View, and you have a rough approximation of what the metaverse will look like – eventually. However, until we have an actual metaverse at our disposal, we’ll continue to utilize these technologies as they get better and better.
The development of virtual reality is one of the first steps towards this potential future. Once the hardware is developed, we’ll be able to take a look at the virtual world from within. This has been made possible through our ability to manipulate sensor data and image-based media, which allows us to simulate anything we want without actually needing to build it first.
Conclusion:
Once this is achieved, we’ll be able to truly dive into the metaverse – a reality where our minds and bodies are still in control of what’s going on around us. As such, this will be a far more realistic representation of reality than anything that’s come before it.
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