In his sci-fi novel Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson introduced the word “metaverse” all the way back in 1992. In the novel, the metaverse is a computer-generated universe for its protagonist Hiro, amplified by his goggles and headsets. And ever since Facebook changed its name to Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg effectively bet his company’s future on the metaverse, the hullabaloo surrounding the term only seems to be increasing daily. But what is the metaverse?
The Covid-19 pandemic forced many of us to work from home, taking part in meetings via Zoom and interacting will our colleagues over Slack. But what if we can create a more immersive world? A world where we can teleport ourselves somewhere to interact with our friends, family and colleagues without physically being present there? Imagine being able to work, learn, play, shop, create and do so many other things that we cannot do just using our computers and mobile phones. I believe the next version of the internet will offer these experiences in a combined virtual space that is the metaverse.
Now, metaverse is a universal word used to describe a combined virtual space, but there are specific technologies that comprise it. Augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), head-mounted displays (HMD), the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, artificial intelligence and spatial technologies are some of them. These technologies, when combined, offer the complete metaverse experience. However, in order to provide that experience, these technologies will need to rely on data to a large extent, particularly good data (i.e., data with integrity). This article will attempt to discuss the role of data in the metaverse and how some of the aforementioned technologies can leverage that data.
One of the key elements of the metaverse is using avatars to represent ourselves. Our avatars would be similar to our profile pictures that we use on social media sites, but not the static ones that we currently use. Instead, they would be dynamic, 3D representations of us. And we might have multiple avatars—one for gaming, one for our professional lives, one for hanging out with our friends, etc.
App creators would be able to offer us these avatars in the metaverse, but how would they create them? AI, one of the metaverse technologies I previously mentioned, would play a critical role in designing these customizable avatars. AI can analyze 2D user images or 3D scans to create realistic and accurate avatars. We’re already seeing this play out in the real world with apps like Lensa, which takes users’ profile pictures and uses AI to convert them into digital avatars. And as part of the work that we do for our clients at Zuci Systems, we are exploring the possibility of AI being able to create models that provide suggestions for user avatars for our healthcare clients.
Another element of the metaverse that would rely on data significantly is the use of digital twins. These are digital representations of physical infrastructure and devices that data scientists and IT professionals can use to run simulations on. Digital twins are continuously updated with historical as well as current data from various sources to create an up-to-date representation as soon as new information becomes available.
At our company, we are in the early stages of using digital twins for one of our large clients, but we can already see how digital twin technology would have an impact on the AR and VR components of the metaverse. The use of digital twin technology can come in handy for metaverse app creators to test various scenarios or specific settings before actually implementing them as part of the metaverse.
A recent McKinsey article notes that digital twin technology will play a key role in helping shape the “enterprise metaverse.” The article states: “Ultimately, the ‘enterprise metaverse’ will be powered by dozens of interconnected digital twins that replicate everything from physical assets (like products and office buildings) to people (such as customers and employees) to core business processes and often interact with the physical environment without human intervention.” One can only imagine the amount of data in a scenario like this.
The technologies mentioned here are certainly going to play a critical role in the development of the metaverse. And needless to say, high-quality training data will be required so that developers can use these technologies to build the platforms and apps that will allow the metaverse to reach its full potential.
Article resource: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2023/01/30/the-role-of-data-in-the-metaverse/?sh=5e0ac567792f
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