There have been many talks that the metaverse is the future, similar to what the Internet did in the early years. Facebook rebranded its company to Meta, focusing on the metaverse. Roblox is hosting user-generated video games and stores for many luxury brands, including Gucci, Ralph Lauren, and Givenchy.
There is a lot of marketing hype from various companies. Some focus on virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), or any combination of them. Some are more with social aspects of virtual work interactions with the support of the creator economy. At this point, there seems to be no central authority who can clearly give a definition of the metaverse. One thing that seems to be clear is that metaverse is not only one technology. It comprises multiple existing and emerging technologies.
To make it easier, below is an attempt to compare them side-by-side with what we’ve known – the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI). This will show all components that currently support the metaverse.
- Experiences
- Discover
- Creator Economy
- Spatial Computing
- Decentralization
- Human Interface
- Infrastructure
Seven Layers of the Metaverse
1. Experiences
The experiences in the Metaverse are not only limited to the viewable 3D representation of the physical world, they will include the ability to interact with virtual people and objects. The real-time immersive experiences will change the way we live our lives, including entertainment, gaming, sports, shopping, etc.
2. Discovery
This layer describes how the Metaverse experiences are discovered. Currently, there are only a limited number of platforms available focusing on different experiences such as Roblox for the virtual community, Sandbox for gaming, and Meta for digital connection. Based on the need of participants, they will choose one of the platforms to meet their needs.
3. Creator Economy
The Metaverse platform must promote the Creator Economy by providing design and promotional tools and allowing creators to produce and sell/trade virtual assets. The way to sell or buy will involve crypto and NFTs.
4. Spatial Computing
Spatial computing is to enable and optimizes actions and interactions between virtual and physical worlds. The technologies such as VR/AR/XR and voice/gesture recognition can potentially transform how industrial enterprises optimize operations for many industries.
5. Decentralization
Blockchain technology offers decentralization, which refers to the transfer of control and decision-making to a distributed network, to resolve privacy and data security concerns. The most known decentralized metaverse is Decentralized, which supports blockchain.
6. Human Interface
This layer focuses on human interface devices to explore the Metaverse. It could be VR headsets such as Quest 2, or mixed-reality such as HoloLens 2, smart glasses, etc., that can help navigate through digital worlds.
7. Infrastructure
This infrastructure layer is to support an operable and pleasant-experience metaverse.
The following technologies are crucial to support the platform:
- Computing power, especially GPU
- Fast networking – high-speed bandwidth wire and wireless, including 5G/6G
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Summary
Gartner Hype Cycle for 2022 shows that Metaverse will become mature in the next 10 years. Many big technology companies, such as Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Nvidia, etc. are investing their resources in the Metaverse. When asked for the definition of Metaverse, no one at this point still did not have a definitive answer the same way what’s Internet was in the early 80s. This article is attempting to understand this new technology based on what we’ve known.