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The metaverse comes from the word “Meta” (beyond) and “Universe”. It means the world or the universe beyond the boundaries we know. In other words, the metaverse is a virtual world built as a place for people to engage in various activities and interact with each other. You can enter this virtual world by using technologies and devices connected to the internet such as virtual reality headsets and create your avatar or a 3D graphics to represent yourself. Then you can enjoy talking to other avatars, holding meetings, travelling, shopping, joining live concerts, playing games, etc.
The metaverse was first known in the online gaming community but recently many companies have invested in building their own metaverse to catch up with future technology. Last year, Mark Zuckerberg, a founder of the social media website Facebook announced Meta, a new corporate name. One business underneath Meta is a business to develop virtual reality and augmented reality products. In the future, Facebook users will be able to create their avatars to enjoy activities and create their own virtual products.
Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies are needed to get involved in the Metaverse. Let’s take a look at what these technologies are.
Augmented Reality Technology
AR (Augmented Reality) is a technology that combines the real world with the virtual world by using hardware devices together with various software, resulting in visualization that looks like an object displayed on the screen as a 3D object floating on the real surface like Pokémon GO, virtual avatar, 3D hologram.
Virtual Reality Technology
VR (Virtual Reality) is a technology to simulate a 360-degree image of a place or environment. Users need to wear VR headsets e.g. smart glasses, VR gloves to simulate the sense of touch, virtual surround sound, virtual vision in the metaverse when playing online battle games, visiting virtual museum, simulating airplane driving, for example.
Why is the Metaverse important?
Due to COVID-19 over the past two years, people’s daily lives have changed a lot. Social distancing has forced students to study online, employees have to work from home, businesses have to expand into the world of e-commerce, many events have been changed to virtual events. These made people become more familiar with online life and the coming metaverse in the future will make our online experiences look and feel more real.
E-commerce businesses can build virtual influencers to promote their products and brands in the metaverse. Consumers can wander through virtual stores and try on clothes or accessories online without going to the actual stores.
Travel industry can simulate attractions and festivals for a sightseeing in the virtual world, so it allows travelers to experience the destination before going to the actual places.
Entertainment industry can host virtual concerts where spectators can attend from anywhere in the world. In the film industry, virtual characters or virtual locations can be created.
Healthcare industry utilizes AR and VR in virtual reality surgical simulation in case of the complicated and high-risk surgeries. This is to let the surgeon practice and assess the risks before the actual surgery.
Investment management industry uses digital assets like cryptocurrency and token digital to buy and sell digital items which are converted to NFT (Non-Fungible Token) using blockchain technology.
Conclusion
With today’s constantly evolving AR and VR technologies, the metaverse is on the verge of becoming the virtual world of the future where people from all over the world can interact in the same place, although in the real world they are far away from each other.
In addition, cryptocurrency, blockchain and NFT technologies will also play an important role in the future economy of the metaverse. Companies as well as general people can create their own NFT and sell it on the metaverse. That’s why many companies are becoming more interested in participating in this virtual world.
Reference:
https://www.thairath.co.th/lifestyle/tech/2230534
https://www.bitkub.com/blog/what-is-metaverse-4d0c424ac184
https://www.nectec.or.th/news/news-article/9about-metaverse.html
https://www.efinancethai.com/Fintech/FintechMain.aspx?release=y&name=ft_202204111141
Credit image: freepik.com
