The Metaverse is still in its nascent stages but with the business sector and entertainment industry realising the impact on its business model and taking a keen interest, soon a lot of things will change such as the way we entertain ourselves, shop, watch movies, or hang out with friends. Rapid developments are expected to power the 3D world’s development what with tech companies incorporating cutting-edge technologies to offer an immersive metaverse virtual experience.
Let us take a look at the top key technologies that power the Metaverse.
- Blockchain and Cryptocurrency: Blockchain plays a vital role in the metaverse development as most of the applications run on blockchains. It provides a decentralized and transparent solution for the functioning of the metaverse such as digital ownership verification, value transfer, governance, digital collectability, accessibility, and interoperability. Its decentralized mode of operation is crucial since it helps the Metaverse in protecting and decentralizing the data. It collects and stores information in blocks that are strung together in a chronological order. These blocks create a chain of data that acts as a virtual ledger that stores a record of transactions which is immutable and secure. This in turn enables the storage of in-game assets, smart contracts, virtual real estate, NFTs, etc. Cryptocurrency is one of the primary technologies that enable users to exchange value while they work and socialize in the 3D digital world. Users have to convert their real world currencies to crypto for purchasing any resources such as NFTs, virtual lands, and to make in-game purchases.
- Augmented reality (AR): Augmented reality is an experience where digital information is integrated with the user’s environment in real time. Designers create an enhanced version of the real physical world through the use of digital visual elements, sound, or other sensory stimuli and deliver them via technology. Here the natural environments are visually modified in one way or another to offer additional information to the end users.
- Virtual Reality (VR): Virtual Reality is a technology that uses computer modeling and simulation to create a computer generated environment with scenes and objects that appear to be real. VR allows the user to feel as if they are immersed in their surroundings instead of viewing a screen in front of them. Users can interact with 3D worlds as if they were one of the characters. This immersive experience created for the user that simulates reality is generated through the use of software and interactive hardware devices such as goggles, headsets, gloves, or body suits.
VR allows the training of not only school students but is used widely in military training as well as in the corporate sector for employee training to deliver a unique experience that isn’t feasible otherwise. In the travel industry it allows the user to be taken inside the property and feel the place through their perspective instead of just viewing it. Similarly, in gaming, a user has the ability to go from passive to active. Other areas that have greatly benefited from VR technology are medicine, culture, entertainment, retail, healthcare, fashion, gaming, and architecture.
- Artificial intelligence (AI): AI has been widely applied in our lives right from business strategy planning and decision making to faster computing and smoother user interface so as to deliver immersive experiences. It will be even more crucial in powering the metaverse development where social interactions will occur with computer-controlled automated actions. Human activities will be represented by the creation of 2D and 3D based Avatars as per the specific characteristics of users. It will be even more crucial in powering the metaverse development where social interactions will occur with computer-controlled automated actions. Human activities will be represented by the creation of 2D and 3D based Avatars as per the specific characteristics of users. These activities include the ability to “read” text, content analysis, speech processing, and computer vision. This technology will enhance the appearance of the avatars to look more realistic and accurate by creating different facial expressions, hair style, clothes, and features, thereby adding more character to the avatars. Other important applications in the metaverse where AI technology is used are AIOps, AI bots, digital twins, digital avatars and inclusive user interfaces.
- Internet of Things (IoT): The IoT technology connects everything in our real world to the Internet via sensors and gadgets. The sensors used in IoT have the ability to send and receive information automatically after connecting to the Internet by pairing up devices like VR headsets, haptic gloves, speakers, voice recognition, etc. Therefore IoT will play a crucial role in the Metaverse that uses wireless on a large scale. It will seamlessly connect the 3D world to a large number of devices from the physical world enabling the creation of real-time simulations in the metaverse. Using AI and machine learning algorithms, IoT can enable realistic responses to interactions in the metaverse as well as optimize the metaverse environment by managing the data that it collects. Digital representation and data collection done by metaverse’s IoT applications are more accurate and hence this data can help the metaverse to adjust its environment more precisely to the real world conditions.
