“Pair-of-glasses” is the Next Internet Revolution? Metaverse Combined with Design Thinking Rule the Social Experience in Next 10 Years? Are You Ready to Embrace? Read this Interesting Perspective!!

Dear Friends and Students
 
Recently Mark Zukerberg announced Meta as their Future Brand (Facebook, Whatsapp, Insta, and other Few Social Tools combined). Immediately, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella shares Metaverse plans and talks about users' immersive experiences. Few other companies like Unity Software, Nvidia Corp, Epic Games, Payments firm Visa, etc. are betting huge and investing in Metaverse technologies.

Now you might ask what this Metaverse is. Why suddenly are these companies talking about it?  A few decades back, the desktop was popular. Next, web ruled the world, and today the mobile. Similarly, when we were working, a few of our IT teams used to have a gadget named “Pager”. Now it is no more. A small text used to popup and they used to attend calls. For some time, text was the king. Later photo sharing became a popular medium. Thanks to YouTube and free video space provisioning, today's video content is powerful.

Now the question is what is upgraded in this evolution? – Experience and Social Connection! The next in the line is all about the Metaverse, an evolution of social connection! People are no happier with basic static or video calls!  They want more experience. Here comes Metaverse using Augmented Reality (AR) Or Virtual Reality (VR) or Mixed Reality (MR) technologies. A day is coming shortly, where you don’t need to build a 5 crores physical mansion to experience the house. You can develop it virtually and immerse yourself! Metaverse makes it happen.

You don’t need to attend a family function happening 100 miles away! Your avatar can participate in that function as if you are physically present! You can participate in your cousin’s Marriage Sangeet Function happening in another country, sitting in your place! You don’t need to go 1000 miles away to participate in an important customer meeting. Your avatar participates virtually. It allows physical expressions, eye contact, and debate and make your presence feel natural and vivid, but you are virtual!

How it is possible? Technology is ramping up. AR/VR/MR is going to change this metaverse experience. Companies like Meta (Facebook) are building a new ecosystem and bringing standards and norms into this space without compromising privacy and safety. Metaverse brings Presence, Avatars, Home Space, Teleporting (hypothetical transfer of matter or energy from one point to another without traversing the physical space between them), Interoperability, Virtual Goods, Natural Interfaces, etc.

Virtual Reality (VR) technology means, that when you wear VR enabled pair of glasses, you will be taken to the virtual environment. Games, Training, Lab demonstration, Live broadcast, etc. can be a few examples. Your professor can give a demo sitting in his office and you can attend lab sitting in your home!

Augmented Reality (AR) technology means the real environment in addition to digital elements. You might have heard about Pokemon Go right? It is a completely AR game. IKEA (Furniture) Mobile App, Disney Coloring Book (3D renderings using a mobile phone or tablet), L’Oréal Makeup App (various types of makeup), and Weather Channel Studio Effects are a few other examples!

Mixed Reality (MR) technology allows you to interact with and manipulate both physical and virtual items and environments simultaneously, using next-generation sensing and imaging technologies.

All this needed a lot of data and great infrastructure. This is going to be a boom for some time! Design Thinking makes these experiences more humanly! Design Thinking plays a crucial role in developing these experiences!! Design Thinking shapes the Metaverse technology and applies to the real and social context. Are you excited? Now you might ask, what skills you need to develop to participate in this revolution.

Skillset: Design Thinking, Programming (Java, C#, Swift, JavaScript, loops, control-logic, OOP principles like inheritance, abstraction, encapsulation, etc at your fingertips), UX Design Knowledge, UI/UX Development based on a given mock, SDKs like ARCore, ARKit, ARFoundation, Machine Learning & Computer Vision, 3D Modelling & Animation, Graphics Rendering, and finally understanding of Social Media!

Few IITs and Deemed Universities started Bachelor of Design courses with few Computer Science additions. Next year IIT Delhi is going to start B.Des. course. This course gets a sense of the future and structured Career path!
Are you ready to make yourself self-prepared for the Next Metaverse-based Internet Revolution?
Metaverse- All happening in a Pair of Glasses! Do You want to Cook in those glasses?

Your Well-wisher
Ravi Saripalle
 

About the Author

Dr. Ravi Saripalle, Director, Center for Innovation and Incubation, Gayatri Vidya Parishad College of Engineering, Vizag, AP, India., Founder, Inspire to Innovate Storytelling Movement, Former Program Manager, Wipro Technologies, 23 of Experience in Industry, Mentoring, Research, and Academics.

Note: Opinions expressed by authors are their own.

Pics Source: Pixabay