Metaverse: The new step of virtual reality

The main consequence of the new normal has been the virtualization of reality. Telecommuting, tele-education, video conferencing are now part of daily life and, in fact, have become a necessity.

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), between January and March 2020, as COVID-19 infections spread around the world, countries instructed employers to shut down their operations and, if possible, implement full-time telecommuting for your workers, with very little preparation time for both employers and workers. Something that was planned as a temporary, short-term solution has been going on for months.

Preliminary estimates from the International Labor Organization indicate that, at the worst moment of the crisis, in the second quarter of 2020, some 23 million people teleworked in the Latin American and Caribbean region.

This represents between 20 and 30% of the wage earners who were actually working. Before the pandemic, that figure was less than 3%.

This whole situation caught the attention of social networks and accelerated a process that had already been cooking for a couple of decades: virtual life.

In October, Facebook announced that it would hire 10,000 people in Europe to develop the “metaverse.” What is this about? It is still an idea in development and to someone outside the industry it might just seem like an improved version of virtual reality.

But experts say it will be to VR what the smartphones They went, in terms of the technological revolution, to the rudimentary first smartphones.

This virtual universe would be accessed with a VR viewer and probably with an avatar (virtual representation) in 3D, and would connect all kinds of digital environments.

Unlike today’s virtual reality, which is mainly used for video games, the metaverse would be used for all kinds of activities: work, games, concerts, movies, or just to hang out.

According to Rabindra Ratan and Yiming Lei, specialists from Michigan State University, there are three key aspects of the metaverse: presence, interoperability and standardization.

Presence is the feeling of actually being in a virtual space, with other virtual ones. Decades of research have shown that this sense of incarnation improves the quality of online interactions. This sense of presence is achieved through virtual reality technologies, such as head-mounted displays or virtual reality headsets.

Interoperability means being able to seamlessly travel between virtual spaces with the same virtual assets, such as avatars and digital items. ReadyPlayerMe allows people to create an avatar that they can use in hundreds of different virtual worlds, even in Zoom meetings through apps like Animaze.

At the same time, technologies blockchain What cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens facilitate the transfer of digital assets across virtual borders.

Standardization is what enables interoperability of platforms and services across the metaverse. As with all media technologies, common technology standards are essential for widespread adoption. International organizations such as the Open Metaverse Interoperability Group define these standards.

Facebook has made building the metaverse one of its top priorities. It has invested heavily in virtual reality through its Oculus device, which is cheaper than its rivals.

According to analysts, the price could be causing losses to the company, which in turn makes the viewer of its brand reach more people.

You are also creating virtual reality applications for social gatherings and for the workplace, including those that allow you to interact with the real world.

According to experts from the University of Michigan, whether the metaverse becomes the successor to the internet, who builds it, and how, is extremely important to the future of the economy and society as a whole.

Facebook aims to play a leadership role in shaping the metaverse, in part by investing heavily in virtual reality. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained in an interview his opinion that the metaverse encompasses non-immersive platforms like today’s social media, as well as immersive 3D media technologies like virtual reality, and that it will be for work as well as for home. play.

Most users already spend a large part of their lives online: 6 hours and 42 minutes a day on average, according to a recent study by the Hootsuite platform. But, according to Zuckerberg, “the next platform and a half will be even more immersive. An embodied Internet in which one is in the experience, not just looking at it. And we call this the metaverse. And you will be able to do almost anything you can imagine ”.

The metaverse may provide humanity with more technological options than ever. This new space can allow the satisfaction of an increasing part of the desires in the digital space rather than in the material. It will allow users to do much more and conserve, rather than consume, resources such as fuel, building materials and land, according to many experts. (I)