In the early 2000’s we saw an enormous blitz in tech when mobile devices and big-name software companies introduced affordable, interoperable and reliable video chat opportunities.
Now, 20 years later, the industry is bracing for another surge as we again upgrade our virtual interactions. What started as seeing someone’s face on your screen is now evolving into complete virtual identities with exclusive environments we’ll own and customize.
Like any new tech endeavour, it’s hard to visualize what it’ll all look like and by default we’ve probably thought of the Metaverse as some advanced version of SIMS. But the potential of this virtual universe is way more intense than just customizing an avatar and owning digital land. The Metaverse could very well revolutionize both the digital and physical world and here’s how it’s predicted to do just that.
Education
Imagine a group of students studying Ancient Egypt and then entering a Metaverse that mimics the era for a fully-immersive experience? Or gaining skills through hands-on experience without the need for a grand facility and equipment. Not only will this reduce costs for education, but it’ll also enable more impoverished areas to access higher learning.
Real Estate
How convenient would it be to tour a home without having to physically attend a showing? Thanks to VR technology, it’ll be possible for a homeowner in Berlin to sip tea while touring a home in Miami. Another enormous advantage of the Metaverse is the possibility of buying virtual Real Estate with actual ROI potential. A universal battle with inflation has led many countries into a housing crisis, making the potential profits from real estate unaffordable and inaccessible to many. The Metaverse can reorder wealth by equalizing the playing field and allowing all sizes of eager investors to get involved.
Communication
With workforces turning remote and enlisting a global team, the Metaverse will be a vital asset in building collaboration and easing communications. In non-professional settings, the Metaverse has a huge advantage with its increased ability to capture the non-verbal and spatial interaction. This is the current gap that makes individuals choose in-person communication; no other technology has been able to capture this degree of realism. Should the Metaverse pull it off, they’ll have an instant lineup of customers ready to give it a go.
Healthcare
No one enjoys going to the Doctors office – and with the Metaverse, you might not have to. Telehealth isn’t a new concept, but the quality is nowhere near the quality of a new VR examination. In addition to greater convenience, accessibility of specialists will increase, enabling individuals to work with physicians around the world and not be restricted to a local demographic.
Medical training will also see enormous improvements, as laboratories can apply VR technology to enable students a more in-depth review of Anatomy and hands-on experience right from the start.
Entertainment
Conventions, gaming, video streaming and more will move to a completely new level within the Metaverse. For starters, creators will break the demographic barrier to enable a huge increase in fanbase. The affordability of media will move into quantity vs quality, making things like virtual concerts available to a new community that might’ve been deterred due to ticket prices or rural locations.
While all industries bring something unique and exciting to the table, the underlying component that makes the Metaverse so revolutionary, is the ability to mimic human interaction without needing actual proximity to a person. Much resistance to evolving into a tech sphere has been the hesitancy about human connection – a primal need we can’t survive without. Given our codependency on this element of life, it’s not something tech giants can ignore any longer.
Could the Metaverse be the bridge between the physical and digital world?
