The “Metaverse” had become a new buzzword since the end of 2021, when Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Meta, formerly known as Facebook) presented his vision, and renamed the company to Meta. Many have predicted that it will be the future of the Internet, where it will bridge the physical and digital worlds in a way like no other by enhancing the immersive experiences of users through device-independent platforms that are not owned by any single vendor. In fact, Gartner predicts that 25% of people will spend at least 1 hour per day to carry out their activities in the Metaverse, for example, for working, education, shopping and other forms of entertainment. But what is the metaverse? Did it just come about? Or was this phenomenon conceived before Mark Zuckerberg’s vision?
According to Wikipedia, a metaverse is a “network of 3D [three-dimensional] virtual worlds focused on social connection”. Similarly, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the metaverse as a “concept of a highly immersive virtual world where people gather to socialize, play, and work”. While adoption of metaverse technologies are still at the early stages, many tech companies are jumping onto the metaverse bandwagon, and Gartner expects that activities that currently take place in isolated environments (e.g. through technologies such as virtual and augmented reality) will eventually take place in the metaverse.
Characteristics of the Metaverse
Albeit the many different definitions about the metaverse, there are several characteristics that have been described in the literature. In a review by Kye and colleagues, the metaverse can be categorized into 4 main types. As shown in Figure 1, the categories can be split into 4 quadrants defined by the x-axis, which ranges from the external world to the inner world; and the y-axis that ranges from augmentation technologies to simulation technologies. The external world focuses more on the environment around the user (e.g. through sensors and other common hardware/software), in contrast to the inner world which focuses more on the identify and interactions of the user.
Going in a clockwise manner, the 4 quadrants that describe the characteristics of the metaverse are:
- Augmented Reality (AR): This characteristic is probably familiar to many due to the popular game – Pokemon Go. AR technologies create 3D digital overlays over real-world objects and can work with or without markers (e.g. QR codes). It is postulated that location-based AR technologies and networks can be used to build a smart environment in the metaverse.
- Lifelogging: This characteristic involves technology that captures, stores and shares everyday information and experiences of users. Examples of lifelogging applications include social media platforms like Facebook (Meta) and Instagram, smart trackers like the Apple Watch or Fitbit, and even food diaries such as MyFitnessPal.
- Mirror Worlds: This characteristic is able to reflect the real world as it is, but it additionally integrates and provides external environmental information. Examples include virtual maps using GPS technology, such as Google Maps and Google Earth; as well as the real-time communication platforms that we have become so used to – like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams.
- Virtual Worlds: This characteristic has become very popular since COVID-19, and it involves a virtual world or environment that is built with digital data, where users can interact with the enviroment and other users through avatars. Virtual Worlds was first popularized through gaming and simulation platforms, like Minecraft and Second Life; but has since seen many applications both in healthcare and in education.
History of the Metaverse
Contrary to what many of us think, the concept of the metaverse is not new. Let’s go back in time to explore a brief history of the metaverse (Figure 2). While it only makes sense to start at the beginning of the birth of the Internet, there are several other points in history that I thought would be worthwhile to mention. I have compiled this history from various sources, and credit goes to the following resources for this interesting metaverse timeline: Forbes Magazine, Days Tech, Futurist Speaker Thomas Frey, Wikipedia and Parker Software.
1989: It was during this time when Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first online message that gave birth to the World Wide Web (WWW) as we know today.
1992: The term “metaverse” was first coined in a science fiction novel called “Snow Crash”, written by Neal Stephenson. In this book, people used virtual reality (VR) and digital avatars of themselves to escape from a dystopian reality and explore an online, digital world, such as walking on the street, visiting shops, offices, amusement parks and other forms of entertainment. Furthermore, activities that happened in the book’s metaverse could potentially impact people in the real world.
2002: The concept and model of a digital twin (which is a digital counterpart of a physical object) was originated at a Society of Manufacturing Engineers Conference by Dr Michael Grieves, an expert in product lifecycle management who was then at the University of Michigan.
2003: An online virtual world called Second Life was released by Linden Lab (which is a technology company based in San Francisco) – which is considered to be the first metaverse. Users could live and move around in Second Life as avatars. However, during that time, low bandwidths and high resolution timings made it difficult for users to navigate the virtual world within it.
2006: A gaming platform called Roblox was introduced, where users could develop and play games. This platform became very popular during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, where it was a main source of interaction for young people, and it became the 3rd highest grossing game that year. The company is now planning to build its own modern metaverse.
2011: The science fiction novel Ready Player One was released, where readers were introduced to a virtual reality gaming world, where the protagonist in the story searched for an Easter egg in the VR game in order to inherit the game creator’s fortune. The novel was made into a Stephen Spielberg movie that won many nominations and awards, and grossed over USD$582 million worldwide in 2018.
2016-2017: Fast forward to 5 years later, the famous Pokemon Go augmented reality game was released in 2016, where users all over the world could use the GPS in their mobile devices to locate, capture and train pokemon in real-time, in the real-world. And in 2017, the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) known as Fortnite was released and became a huge success of over 350 million users, as it introduced people to cryptocurrency and how a gaming metaverse could feel like. Fortnite also became the first metaverse video game where a concert was held by Travis Scott and Marshmello.
2021: And in 2021, the same year that Facebook changed it’s name to Meta, Microsoft unveiled Microsoft Mesh, which is a collaboration and communications platform built on Microsoft Azure to enable holographic technology and mixed reality apps for multi-users. One of their applications is Mesh for Microsoft Teams, where people can join in virtual meetings, collaborate and share documents, and more, through a mixed reality headset, such as the HoloLens.
Potential of the Metaverse in Healthcare and Education
The metaverse is going to be an intriguing place to navigate. Already, various universities and healthcare institutions are already exploring mixed reality technologies in the attempt to tap into the metaverse. Examples are Project Polaris by the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and the HoloAnatomy course by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. The Seoul National University Bundang Hospital has also integrated their smart operating room with the metaverse environment to enable surgical training and real-time collaboration and discussions of surgeries.
In fact, several organizations have also created what is a called a Metaversity (Metaverse + University). An example is VictoryXR, which has collaborated with Meta to create a variety of products to teach various subjects ranging from the sciences to social sciences and the medical/health sciences. Aventis Graduate School, a private institute in Singapore, has also created what they claim to be the World’s First Graduate School in the Metaverse to elevate the global executive education system.
The potential of the metaverse for healthcare and education is indeed exciting, and we should expect to see more applications come to pass as we transition into the new normal.