The idea of a metaverse comes from the novel Avalanche. Neil was born in the United States in 1992. Stephenson explores futuristic technology in his novel Avalanche, which describes a futuristic world where the real world and the virtual world are bundled together, and first introduces the concept of “metaverse”.
2021 is the first year of the metaverse. In early 2021, Soul App was the first company in the industry to propose a “social metaverse”. In March 2021, Roblox, known as the first stock in the metaverse, officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange; In May, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the company was working to create an “enterprise metaverse”; In August, Nvidia announced the launch of the world’s first simulation and collaboration platform to provide the foundation for the creation of the meta-universe; In August, ByteDance made a huge acquisition of VR startup Pico; On October 28, US social media giant Facebook announced that it was changing its name to “Meta”, which comes from “Metaverse”.
On February 14, 2022, Ocean Park Hong Kong announced that Ocean Park Hong Kong and The Sandbox cooperated in the layout of the meta-universe. On June 30, 2022, China’s first home metauniverse platform was officially released in Nankang. In October, the Report on China’s Metauniverse Development (2022) released at the Web3.0 Development Trend Summit Forum of the 2022 Service Trade Commission showed that the output value of the upstream and downstream industries in China’s metauniverse exceeded 400 billion dollars, mainly reflected in the aspects of game entertainment, VR and AR hardware, etc. In the next five years, the domestic metauniverse market will exceed 200 billion dollars at least.
The metaverse is the convergence of many new technologies, including Blockchain, Interactivity, video games, Artificial intelligence, networks, computing,
Internet of Things
The Big Six techniques are commonly referred to as “BIGANT” for short.
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Metaverse builds an economic system based on blockchain technology, realizes a higher dimension based on human-computer interaction technology, provides immersive experience based on video game technology, carries out multi-scene deep learning based on artificial intelligence technology, and builds infrastructure of “intelligent connection”, “deep connection”, “holographic connection”, “ubiquitous connection” and “computing power as a service” based on network and computing technology. To realize the Internet of everything based on the Internet of Things, the virtual world and the real world are closely integrated in the identity system, social system and economic system, enabling users to produce personalized content and diversified world editing, and building a digital living space that integrates virtual and real.
First, blockchain technology
A blockchain is a distributed database that records information about all transactions in each block. Blockchain databases are stored as chains and encrypted using cryptographic methods. Blockchain can be thought of as a public, immutable database. This means that anyone can store information on the blockchain, and the information is immutable. Blockchain technology allows data to be stored in publicly distributed databases and kept safe through encryption. The main advantage of blockchain is that it does not require a third party to authenticate or regulate transactions, thus providing cost savings. Moreover, because blockchain is distributed and all transactions are transparent, it is not easy to tamper with.
The main features of blockchain technology are decentralization, cryptographic security, and imtamability. Decentralization means that all transactions are jointly overseen and recorded by network members, rather than controlled by a centralized authority. This makes trading safer and more transparent; Cryptographic security makes it impossible for transaction data to be forged or tampered with. Immutable means that once a transaction is recorded on the blockchain, it cannot be altered.
As the metaverse develops further and simulates the whole real society to a greater extent, we may not only spend money in the metaverse, but also make money, thus forming a set of economic systems in the virtual world. Blockchain is the underlying technology for the construction of the meta-universe world economic system. As a trusted technology “foundation”, it is built at the lowest level of the meta-universe, which can ensure that all the value data in the universe are stored on the blockchain. In this way, no one can tamper with the facts that have happened at will, forming a natural trust network.
Two, human-computer interaction technology
Human-computer interaction is the underlying technology for the connection and interaction between the virtual and the real in the metaverse world, which supports the “immersion and superposition” attribute in the metaverse scene. The representative of immersive path is VR technology. For example, wearing VR devices can make people enter an exclusive immersive scene of “everything is ready for me”, which is both immersive and internal. The representative of superposition path is AR technology, which is superposition and extension on the existing conditions, such as adding skin skin to the ordinary robot, inject soul emotion, make it become a simulation robot.
In the metaverse era, humans in the real world can interact with agents in the virtual world (virtual people, digital property, digital objects, etc.). Early on, humans still interact with virtual worlds through their fingers and eyes, as if playing an “immersive video game.” With the advancement of technology, the diversity of its interactive devices will be greatly expanded. For example, cameras and inertial sensors will capture human body movements, voice and other commands in video games, and game story feedback will also be displayed to humans through smart glasses and smart helmets. In the near future, when AI technology continues to develop, there may be a portable smart wearable device, combined with holographic projection technology, allowing us to enter the metaverse world anytime and anywhere. The future metaverse must not be an orgy for the few, but a virtual world that anyone can easily enter.
3. Video game technology
Video games are the prototype of the meta-universe. Therefore, game engines, 3D image rendering and cloud games in video game technology also provide strong technical support for content production in the meta-universe. Video games are generally considered to be the original landing scene of the metaverse. The game provides players with a virtual identity that allows them to socialize and shop within the game. The collaborative development of video game technology and interactive technology is the two major premises for the explosive growth of the user scale of the meta-universe. The former solves the extremely rich content, while the latter solves the immersion.
4. Artificial Intelligence technology
The realization of the meta-universe needs a variety of technologies to support it, and AI is one of the most important technologies, especially AI perception technology. Through visual recognition, SLAM and other technologies, the real world is mapped to the virtual world, while through AI-supported 3D reconstruction, image generation and other technologies, the scenes of the virtual world are mapped to the real world, mutually reinforcing.
Artificial intelligence is a branch of computer science. It is a new technical science that studies and develops the theory, method, technology and application system used to simulate, extend and expand human intelligence. Research in this field includes robotics, speech recognition, image recognition, natural language processing and expert systems, among others. After decades of research and development of artificial intelligence, its technology and theory has become more and more mature, and the scope of application is also expanding. I believe that in the future, although artificial intelligence can not think like people, but can calculate and judge the results of intelligent machines.
According to Roblox, the metacomes should have eight major elements: identity, friends, immersion, location, diversity, low latency, economy, and civilization.
Among them, in terms of immersion and diversity, the development of artificial intelligence technologies such as computer vision, machine learning, natural language processing, and intelligent speech will bring a new sense of reality to the metaverse, and will have an impact on the following five use cases:
1. Create a more accurate avatar
The user is a key participant in the meta-universe, and the user’s avatar will determine the quality of their experience and that of other participants. Artificial intelligence can analyze 2D user images or 3D scans to create a very realistic virtual representation. Ai can map out a range of facial expressions, emotions, hairstyles, age-related features and more to make a profile picture more vivid.
2. Digital humans
A 3D version of a chatbot in which digital humans exist in a virtual world. They are not exact replicas of real people. Instead, they are more like AI-enabled non-player avatars in video games that can react to user activities in a virtual reality world. Digital humans are created entirely using artificial intelligence technology and are essential to the scenarios of the virtual world.
3. Multilingual accessibility
Ai can help break down natural languages, translate them into machine-readable formats, analyze them, generate responses, and then translate the results back into natural language and communicate them to the user, all in a flash.
4. The massive expansion of virtual worlds
When historical data is fed to the AI, the AI learns from previous outputs and tries to generate its own results. With new inputs, human feedback, and reinforcement by machine learning, AI output will improve over time. Eventually, AI will be able to perform tasks and provide almost the same output as humans.
5. Easy to use interface
Artificial intelligence can help with human-computer interaction. When a user puts on a high-tech, AI-enabled VR headset, sensors recognize and predict the user’s muscle patterns to know exactly how the user wants to move around the virtual world. Artificial intelligence can help recreate the real sense of touch in VR. It can also help support voice navigation, so users can interact with virtual objects instead of using a hand controller.
It can be said that artificial intelligence will be the whole ecological chain throughout the metaverse. Without AI, it would be difficult to create compelling, realistic, and scalable virtual world experiences.
V. Network and computing technology
Metaverse requires high synchronization and low latency, so that users can get real-time, smooth and perfect experience. 5G is the key technology to support the development of the metauniverse, while 6G is the cornerstone of the development of the metauniverse, said Zhang Xinsheng, executive vice president of the Future Mobile Communication Forum, at the first Metauniverse Industry and Technology Seminar. Zhang pointed out that the vision of 6G’s development is the integration of virtual and real applications and experiences, which is very similar to the vision of the metauniverse. According to Zhang, the metaverse is driven by technological progress and changes in the world, showing a combination of physical/real world and digital/virtual world. While promoting the development of the real world, the world is speeding up the construction of the virtual world. The composition of the world has also changed. It is composed of the human world, the physical world and the digital world, and the human, computer and physical world are connected through advanced network technology. Finally, the development is promoted by the virtual world, XR application and network technology.
5G is a key technology to support the development of the meta-universe, providing near-real-time XR content, especially large bandwidth, low latency, and massive Devices. 6G is the cornerstone of the metaverse’s development. The vision of 6G’s development is the intelligent connection of everything, the metaverse (digital twin), and the integration of virtual-real application and experience, which is very similar to the metaverse’s vision. The metaverse’s demand for the development of 6G is mainly a synaesthesia fusion network, involving man-machine interface, network intelligence, pervasive general computing, multi-class metaverse (consumer, enterprise, industry), innovative application of virtual-real integration, accurate positioning sensing, network security and privacy protection and other key points.
6. Internet of Things technology
The Internet of Things refers to the trillions of physical devices around the world that are connected to the Internet to collect and share data. The ultimate goal of the Internet of Things is to make everything part of a network, connecting these disparate objects and adding sensors to them, adding layers of digital intelligence to otherwise monolithic devices and enabling them to communicate data in real time without involving humans. The Internet of Things is making the structure of the world around us smarter and more responsive, merging the “digital world” and the “physical world.”
The Internet of Things will play an important role in the realization and development of the network infrastructure of the metaverse. The ubiquitous connection between the virtual world and the real world is inseparable from the real-time collection and processing of data by a large number of sensors, intelligent terminals and other iot devices. The Internet of Things can provide users with real, lasting and smooth interactive experience, and is the connection and bridge between the virtual world and the real world.
