A METAVERSE DEFINITION

The internet so far has been about web pages and two-dimensional objects that peer out through screens. The next chapter or evolution of the internet will be the metaverse.

The biggest trends in recent years have been that computers moved from the desktop into our pockets. Given the size of devices were shrinking continuously.

In the future it will get closer to senses - to the eyes, to the hands and to speech. Input devices such as keyboards will go away and also staring at screens will eventually disappear.

The metaverse is a way of describing the transition into three-dimensional virtual reality. Just as video calls have changed how we communicate, meeting in 3D offers a huge range of new opportunities.

The promise of the metaverse will allow us to meet as avatars. Shopping, playing, or working in the metaverse will become an immersive experience. That will obviate the need to commute into offices. It will allow to teach and train staff remotely. It will allow a surgeon to help budding medical students to see what surgery’s like in a life like environment. And it will open new ways for experiencing museums or entire cities without the need to actually travel there.

It will take years to build and there will be ethical and regulatory discussions on how to use the metaverse. Like in today’s internet you are going to have service companies operating different systems with different rules and there will be probably rating systems like we have now for film or music and other types of content, so that parents or younger users can have some sense of what the rules are in the environment they are going to get into. Similar to walking into a bar versus a playground: there are different expectations of what rules govern that place. Some of them will be social norms others are enforced by people who run those institutions.

The metaverse meaning will remain the same but the technology behind it will evolve constantly. Lots of companies are going to invest in the soft and hardware technology as well as the operating systems or game engines of the metaverse.

MONKEYWAY is already exploring and enabling the first phase of that evolution by streaming the metaverse with their proprietary solution: GORILLA STREAMING. Companies such as Ferrari, Aston Martin and Lotus Cars are relying on this 3D Streaming technology to enhance their car configurators and the way they interact with their clients in new digital environments.

Leveraging latest 3D real time technologies enables these companies to open new communication channels and creates the opportunity for more immersive and exciting experiences.

Car manufacturers are moving their 3D car configurator applications, created with Unreal Engine or Unity, into the first version of the metaverse. Just like modern video games, interactive 3D applications carry a lot of data. To offer a seamless and photorealistc experience, users needed heavy hardware such as a strong graphics card to use and experience the application. Yet with the latest development in Cloud Streaming Technology the battle around hardware will be obsolete. Mandatory calculations are made remotely in the “cloud” and only the video signal will be streamed to the user. Just like streaming a movie from Netflix or YouTube, Streaming Services such as GORILLA STREAMING enables companies to bring the experience to anyone, anywhere and on any kind of device (smartphones, tablets, desk or laptop computers).

In a broader sense, augmented reality means the computer-aided extension of the human perception of reality. In a narrower sense, it usually means the insertion or overlay of additional visual information or objects on an AR-enabled device (such as modern smart phones) – in real time. In other words in augmented reality, reality is supplemented with digital content.

Virtual reality takes it one step further. In virtual reality the real world is completely excluded and the user immerses completely in a virtual world. Virtual reality can be experienced e.g. in video games, in medical or military educational trainings or in virtual business meetings using an avatar.

According to its name, mixed reality is a mixture of virtual reality and augmented reality. It is the fusion of the real and virtual worlds. Mixed reality is creating new environments and visualizations in which physical and digital objects coexist and interact in real time.

Car manufacturers are already implementing versions of Mixed Reality in their digital sales process. For example, 3D car configurators streamed by GORILLA STREAMING offer the possibility to personalize and sell cars digitally. A sales representative guides the client through the car configuration process supported by a video and 3D application stream.