"Metaverse"

Facebook renames itself to Meta.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement of changing his company’s name to Meta Platforms Inc. or Meta for short,  is possibly the biggest thing to happen to the metaverse.

What is Metaverse?

Metaverse can be referred to as internet brought to life. It can be described as a virtual environment that you can be part of or immerse yourself in. People can work, play, meet in this world, using virtual reality headsets, augmented reality glasses, smartphone apps or other devices. Essentially  Metaverse is a world of endless. 

Imagine the other aspects of online life, such as shopping, social media and news media. You can always stay connected in this virtual world.

According to Victoria Petrock, an analyst who follows emerging technologies, said-

“It’s the next evolution of connectivity where all of those things start to come together in a seamless, doppelganger universe, so you’re living your virtual life the same way you’re living your physical life”

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What can we do in metaverse?

Imagine attending a music concert happening 3000 miles away from you and feel the experience live, a tour of a place that you want to visit, shop and try virtual clothing, all sitting at home.

It will be  the biggest game changer for the current situation of work from home, instead of meeting people on video calls, people will be able to meet them in this virtual world like real. The client meetings will be real as it is face to face.

“A lot of the metaverse experience is going to be around being able to teleport from one experience to another,” Zuckerberg says.

Top Companies working on it?

IS THE METAVERSE JUST A FACEBOOK PROJECT? No, Zuckerberg has acknowledged that “no one company” will build the metaverse by itself.

Other companies talking up the metaverse include Microsoft and chipmaker Nvidia. And many more are working towards it.

Video game companies also are taking a leading role. Epic Games, the company behind the popular Fortnite video game, has raised $1 billion from investors to help with its long-term plans for building the metaverse.

Game platform Roblox is another big player, outlining its vision of the metaverse as a place where “people can come together within millions of 3D experiences to learn, work, play, create and socialize.”

Consumer brands are trying to jump on the trend, Coca-Cola and Clinique have sold digital tokens pitched as a steppingstone to the metaverse.

Microsoft-

Microsoft Mesh enables presence and shared experiences from anywhere – on any device – through mixed reality applications. This platform is intended to involve the features of “Feel Presence”, “Experience Together” and “Connect from Anywhere”

Microsoft has unveiled a solution as the first step to this platform that begins rolling out in 2022: Mesh for Microsoft Teams.

The feature combines the mixed-reality capabilities of Microsoft Mesh, which allows people in different physical locations to join collaboratively and share holographic experiences, with the productivity tools of Microsoft Teams, where people can join virtual meetings, send chats, collaborate on shared documents and much more.

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Nvidia-

NVIDIA Omniverse™ is a powerful multi-GPU real-time simulation and collaboration platform for 3D production pipelines based on Pixar’s Universal Scene Description and NVIDIA RTX™technology.

Omniverse enables universal interoperability across different applications and 3D ecosystem vendors. It provides efficient real-time scene updates and is based on open-standards and protocols. The Omniverse Platform is designed to act as a hub, enabling new capabilities to be exposed as microservices to any connected clients and applications.

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Is Metaverse going to expose more Personal data to internet?

With this concept of Metaverse and how different organizations are working on it, there arises a question- How much of more Personal data I need to expose to the internet? Will we be tracked on our movement on the internet?

“We want to be able to move around the internet with ease, but we also want to be able to move around the internet in a way we’re not tracked and monitored” said venture capitalist Steve Jang, a managing partner at Kindred Ventures who focuses on cryptocurrency technology.

Various critics believe that metaverse is trying to lead the way into a virtual world that could require even more personal data and offer greater potential for misuse.

We would need to wait and see how the platform owners are handling the responsibility of data security and privacy on the platform. Really excited to be part of this digital universe and feel the future. 

Credits-

1. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mesh
2. https://news.microsoft.com/innovation-stories/mesh-for-microsoft-teams/
3. https://apnews.com/
4. https://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-omniverse-platform