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The metaverse is a proposed expansion to existing internet technologies.<ref name=":32"/> Potential access points for metaverses include general-purpose computers and smartphones, in addition to [[augmented reality]] (AR), [[mixed reality]], [[virtual reality]] (VR), and [[Virtual World|virtual world]] technologies.<ref name=":32"/>
The metaverse is a proposed expansion to existing internet technologies.<ref name=":32"/> Potential access points for metaverses include general-purpose computers and smartphones, in addition to [[augmented reality]] (AR), [[mixed reality]], [[virtual reality]] (VR), and [[Virtual World|virtual world]] technologies.<ref name=":32"/>


Business and commercial interest in metaverse-related research and technology include Facebook, which bought VR company [[Oculus (brand)|Oculus]] in 2014, and has announced plans to build a 3-D social space to connect varying services.<ref name=":82"/>
Increasing emphasis on developing [[https://www.emergenresearch.com/industry-report/metaverse-market|metaverse]] platforms for education sector, Business and commercial interest in metaverse-related research and technology include Facebook, which bought VR company [[Oculus (brand)|Oculus]] in 2014, and has announced plans to build a 3-D social space to connect varying services.<ref name=":82"/>


A common dependence on VR technology places limitations on metaverse development and wide-scale adoption.<ref name=":32"/> Limitations stemming from the balance between cost and design include the lack of high-quality graphics and a lack of mobility. Lightweight wireless headsets lack image quality, which is optimized for bulky, wired VR goggle systems.<ref name=":82"/> Another issue for wide-scale adoption of the technology is the cost, with the HTC Vive Pro 2 headset costing US$799 plus controllers in 2021.<ref name=":82"/>
A common dependence on VR technology places limitations on metaverse development and wide-scale adoption.<ref name=":32"/> Limitations stemming from the balance between cost and design include the lack of high-quality graphics and a lack of mobility. Lightweight wireless headsets lack image quality, which is optimized for bulky, wired VR goggle systems.<ref name=":82"/> Another issue for wide-scale adoption of the technology is the cost, with the HTC Vive Pro 2 headset costing US$799 plus controllers in 2021.<ref name=":82"/>

Revision as of 10:12, 29 December 2021

For other uses, see Metaverse (disambiguation).
Avatars socialising in the 2003 virtual world Second Life

A metaverse is a persistent online virtual environment[1][2][3] that incorporates a broad range of Internet functions. In futurism, the term is often described as a hypothetical iteration of the Internet as a virtual world that is facilitated by the use of virtual and augmented reality headsets.[4][3]

The term "metaverse" has its origins in the 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash as a portmanteau of "meta" and "universe." Various metaverses have been developed for popular use such as virtual world platforms like Second Life.[5] Some metaverse iterations involve integration between virtual and physical spaces and virtual economies,[3] often including a significant interest in advancing virtual reality technology.[6][7][8]

The term has seen considerable use as a buzzword[4][9] for public relations purposes to exaggerate development progress for various related technologies and projects.[10] Information privacy and user addiction are concerns within metaverses, stemming from challenges facing the social media and video game industries as a whole.[11][4][12]

Implementations

Video games

Several components of metaverse technologies have already been developed within modern internet-enabled video games.[5] The 2003 virtual world platform Second Life is often described as the first metaverse,[13][14] as it incorporated many aspects of social media into a persistent three-dimensional world with the user represented as an avatar. Social functions are often an integral feature in many massively multiplayer online games. Technology journalist Clive Thompson has argued that the emergent, social-based gameplay of Minecraft represents an advanced analog of a metaverse.[15] Similar statements were made for the game Roblox,[16][17] which has since employed significant usage of the term in marketing.[18] Other claims of developing a metaverse include the games Active Worlds,[19] The Palace, Decentraland,[20] and Fortnite.[21]

Virtual reality

Metaverse development has often focused on bettering virtual reality technologies due to benefits in establishing immersion in virtual environments. In 2019, the social network company Facebook launched a social VR world called Facebook Horizon.[22] In 2021 Facebook was renamed "Meta Platforms" and its chairman Mark Zuckerberg[23] declared a company commitment to developing a metaverse ecosystem,[24] as much of the underlying virtual reality technology remains to be developed.[25][26][27] Microsoft acquired the VR company AltspaceVR in 2017,[28] and is planning on integrating metaverse features into Microsoft Teams.[29]

Woman in a blazer entering a large cylindrical pod at the end of a row of other pods
Concept art of virtual office space called Nth Floor

Some developers have proposed using metaverse technology for improvements in work productivity[30][31] or as a way to allow for interactive environments for learning.[11] Metaverses could also host virtual reality home tours in the real estate sector.[11]

Technology

The metaverse is a proposed expansion to existing internet technologies.[7] Potential access points for metaverses include general-purpose computers and smartphones, in addition to augmented reality (AR), mixed reality, virtual reality (VR), and virtual world technologies.[7]

Increasing emphasis on developing [[1]] platforms for education sector, Business and commercial interest in metaverse-related research and technology include Facebook, which bought VR company Oculus in 2014, and has announced plans to build a 3-D social space to connect varying services.[6]

A common dependence on VR technology places limitations on metaverse development and wide-scale adoption.[7] Limitations stemming from the balance between cost and design include the lack of high-quality graphics and a lack of mobility. Lightweight wireless headsets lack image quality, which is optimized for bulky, wired VR goggle systems.[6] Another issue for wide-scale adoption of the technology is the cost, with the HTC Vive Pro 2 headset costing US$799 plus controllers in 2021.[6]

In 2021, the South Korean government announced the creation of a national metaverse alliance with the goal to build a unified national VR and AR platform.[32]

Technical standards

Common standards, interfaces, and communication protocols among virtual environments are in development. Collaborations and working groups are attempting to create standards and protocols to support interoperability between virtual environments, including:

  • OpenXR, application programming interfaces (APIs) for interfacing with VR and AR devices, Khronos Group (2019–present)
  • Virtual Worlds—Standard for Systems Virtual Components Working Group (P1828),[33][34] IEEE (2010–Present)
  • Information technology—Media context and control—Part 4: Virtual world object characteristics (ISO/IEC 23005-4:2011),[35] ISO (2008–Present)
  • Immersive Education Technology Group (IETG),[36] Media Grid (2008–Present)
  • Virtual World Region Agent Protocol (VWRAP),[37] IETF (2009–2011)
  • The Metaverse Roadmap,[38] Acceleration Studies Foundation (2006–2007)
  • The Open Source Metaverse Project (2004–2008)
  • X3D, the successor to the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) as the open standard for interactive real-time 3D (web3D). X3D is an accepted standard for integrating virtual and augmented realities with the web.[39]

Criticism and concerns

Information privacy is an area of concern for metaverses because related companies will likely collect users' personal information through interactions and biometric data from wearable virtual reality devices.[40] Facebook is planning on employing targeted advertising within their metaverse, raising further worries related to the spread of misinformation and loss of personal privacy.[4]

User addiction and problematic social media use is another concern. Internet addiction disorder, social media, and video game addiction can have mental and physical repercussions over a prolonged period of time, such as depression, anxiety, and various other harms related to having a sedentary lifestyle.[12] Experts are also concerned that metaverses could be used as an 'escape' from reality in a similar fashion to existing internet technologies.[40][41]

Metaverses may magnify the social impacts of online echo chambers and digitally alienating spaces.[3][42] They may abuse common social media engagement strategies to further distort users' perceptions of reality with biased content.[42][43]

In a 2021 interview Elon Musk said he couldn’t see a compelling use-case for the VR-driven metaverse.[44]

Fiction

Snow Crash, 1992

The term metaverse was coined in Neal Stephenson's 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash, where humans, as avatars, interact with each other and software agents, in a three-dimensional virtual space that uses the metaphor of the real world.[45] Stephenson used the term to describe a virtual reality-based successor to the internet.[46]

Neal Stephenson's metaverse appears to its users as an urban environment developed along a 100-meter-wide road, called the Street, which spans the entire 65536 km (216 km) circumference of a featureless, black, perfectly spherical planet. The virtual real estate is owned by the Global Multimedia Protocol Group, a fictional part of the real Association for Computing Machinery, and is available to be bought and buildings developed thereupon.[47]

Users of the metaverse access it through personal terminals that project a high-quality virtual reality display onto goggles worn by the user, or from grainy black and white public terminals in booths. The users experience it from a first-person perspective. Stephenson describes a sub-culture of people choosing to remain continuously connected to the metaverse; they are given the sobriquet "gargoyles" due to their grotesque appearance.[47]

Within the metaverse, individual users appear as avatars of any form, with the sole restriction of height, "to prevent people from walking around a mile high". Transport within the metaverse is limited to analogs of reality by foot or vehicle, such as the monorail that runs the entire length of the Street, stopping at 256 Express Ports, located evenly at 256 km intervals, and Local Ports, one kilometer apart.[47]

Ready Player One, 2011

Ready Player One is a 2011 dystopian science fiction novel by Ernest Cline, depicting the world in the year 2045 as being gripped by an energy crisis and global warming, causing widespread social problems and economic stagnation. The primary escape for people is a metaverse called the OASIS, which is accessed with a VR headset and wired gloves. It functions both as a massively multiplayer online role-playing game and as a virtual society. A film adaptation was released in 2018.[non-primary source needed]

See also

Look up metaverse in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References

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