What is Metaverse? by Mahesh Chand

Let's talk about Metaverse, right

So I have been working with Microsoft HoloLens for, I think in 2014, I started working in that

So Metaverse is not anything new. It's not something new because Facebook recently changed their company name from Facebook to

Meta doesn't make them a like a leader in Metaverse. Okay. They're actually behind if you ask me

Microsoft has been there for a long time. And that was their vision for a while ago is that in a world of enterprises where people

are communicating from different areas, different cities, and like during this pandemic, you

can't even travel. People can use these HoloLens and other 3D or AR VR devices and then collaborate on things

and also looks like they are in real you know together more in some spaces for example you can

be in a park you can be in a meeting room you can be in a coffee shop all those things so let's talk

about what is metaverse right uh it's not new as i said so in metaverse everything is virtual let's

start with one thing everything is virtual okay it's a virtual world it's a digital world means

uh you put these you know you're going to put these glasses on or devices on your headset either

ar vr xr mixed reality doesn't matter you put them on in out of siden you are in a different world

it's a world can be a made up you know it could be a city it could be a universe it could be a room

what doesn't matter where you are and then other people can join from different places and now

you're talking you're sharing you're doing things together and the idea with metaverse really is

that and you know you're sitting here on your computer but you can walk around and do something

else you know you saw those boobies in reality it sounds pretty bad if you ask me it's pretty bad

for our you know health and human and all that because we'll be sitting more on computers but

but there's a there's a useful applications as well too like look at right now in pandemic world

right in today's world somebody's sitting in you know south africa somebody's sitting on india

somebody's sitting in europe somewhere somebody's in u.s now they all for you know people want to

work on the same project or want to collaborate on same you know whatever they're doing together

and want to just go in the same room now that makes a to me that's a good application

right do i really want to put a headset on that for not really right now but there are some

applications when you use headset you can actually work on real project and do real things

so we will go that a little more but point is that metaverse is not new when you are playing

a video game in games you can have your own avatar right and you can become somebody else

You can be a mayor of a city. You can be a general of the army. You can be a player. You can be a, you know, an agent of, you know, whatever you call James Bond and some of the movies. Right. You can use any of those. So that's the better worst world

So technically what it is it basically a 3D world where you have to use some kind of devices to have access to that world obviously to have login and all that you create your identity you create your avatar and in future you also have your real

image which is like you know the way you look that's coming soon you had properties you know

you can have for example you can join this world where you you can go in a city and you can become

you can you know go in a polls and you can become a mayor or president or you can have a you know

there are some games where you can start collecting building your army and you can attack on some

other world so that's kind of same idea but that's not really we are talking about this right now here

my focus is what can we do with metaverse what are the real applications we as software developers

can create right what can make us build you know next businesses so if you have you know you're

building business software for businesses. How can you take advantage or benefit from these new

technologies? And that's really what we are talking about here. So in the metaverse right now, there

are two leading companies. Facebook is trying to build it. They're saying that metaverse is the next

big thing. That's what they're really focusing on a lot. Microsoft has already been doing its own

metaverse kind of version with businesses so microsoft is saying you know our holographic

computing with our hollow lens and combining with other device and they also launch a new platform

called microsoft mesh microsoft mesh is an azure cloud platform where all the data objects can be

collected through these devices and the processing will be done on the on the cloud in cloud and then

so the the communication is really smooth and fast and no lagging and it can also use AI and

machine learning in the back end so uh guys as I as I keep saying a lot of these things make sure

if you have any questions feel free to pull these questions here so make sure I cover that

um so look at Microsoft Teams now Microsoft Teams have already I'm using metaverse now means

you can go in a room you can use an avatar you can use 3d shapes and you can also use holograms

and you like if you have a HoloLens both parties have HoloLens you can have your hologram shapes

and then you can move and you will see me like in 3D how I'm moving on 2D right now on the screen

you can see in 3D I can move around and things like that so that's kind of what we are talking

about here it's a big market I think research just came out I scored this from an online website it

says it's going to be 1.4 trillion market in coming time that's a big market so what is the

importance of a blockchain in metaverse right blockchain and cryptocurrency play is going to

play a major role because in virtual metaverse world the currency is going to be virtual okay

it's not going to be real cash it's not going to be credit cards either the all transaction will

happen it will be in terms of these cryptocurrencies okay and should and then once you let's say you

are in a metaverse you are in a city and you say you know what i'm going to buy this house you go

and buy this house you have to pay for it um so how you pay you have to pay in cryptocurrency right

digital assets or and then security is going to be another concern as well security and ownership

of the how do you make sure that whatever you own digital because they are not real you have no proof

it like cryptocurrency you have to make sure they secure right So this is all about building digital economy right I don know if you heard of it but NFTs non tokens are growing like insane

I don't know where this world is going to, but everybody's building NFTs these days

Anybody I talk to, everything is NFT. So I'm working with a couple of projects on NFTs already

So just, you know, that's what it is. That's what it is. So what are the other challenges ahead in Metaverse

I think I see a big challenge in the data because, you know, right now when we are talking, I'm, you know, speaking here and you are joining me and watching me

This is all 2D data, right? It's going on a screen. 2D data is very small compared to 3D data

In Metaverse, everything is 3D, you know. So there's an amount of data is going to create and transfer from one place to other place

this tour is like for example if we are communicating this in 3d world metaverse and we start recording

this this uh half an hour size can be multiple multiple times of this 2d size um so that's one

big challenge number two challenge security right in digital world if i own something how do i make

sure that the ownership is is secure and nobody else can go hack into my system and claim that they

own that. That's another big challenge. And then third or fourth things are basically, you know

we have seen the effect of social media on children in mental and physical health. So in

virtual world, it's easy for people to say things they would never say in real life

Because in real life you are in front of a person, you see things and then you, you know, it's hard

for me to yell at somebody or curse at somebody or do bad things to somebody in real life because

there are emotions that are there but in virtual world in this metaverse it's easy for people to

bully to yell to curse to do other things to kick to shoot right so look at all the games

i can go in a game and i can shoot around people okay will i do that in my real life never

so that's kind of things we need to worry about and then mental and physical health so

So imagine if we are playing, we are in metaverse a lot rather than doing in-person events

If we start doing all events or meetings, work meetings in metaverse

in reality, physically, we are just sitting around on a chair or standing around

So we are not really meeting. So that is a big effect on our mental and physical health

So those are going to be some of the major challenges. But as I was speaking in another conference the other day

a lot of people are already thinking about the solving these problems how if you are in metaverse

how you know not only you can solve these mental physical problems in within metaverse but also in

real life so for example i had some i have one lady linda she came in talking about how she plans

to use metaverse she said she's going to because of the pandemic or physical distance she may have

a studio in metaverse that talks about you know mental health and how to improve your physical

health and everything else so in other words she will teach in the within the metaverse so people

can do that in real life because they can learn how to do things in 3d and pretend like they're

real but then they can apply that same thing they learned within metaverse in the outside of real So that one example Other example is let say four engineers are working on a 3d model or building a you know boat or architecting in a house or something they can learn that doing that

in a 3d model but then after learning and all that then they can take that out and do that in real

work. So there are some applications in metaverse that are going to be very useful especially from

the business side and that is why personally i'm more interested in microsoft metaverse compared to

facebook metaverse or other metaverses right that's kind of i'm thinking yeah so let's take a

yeah we have a couple of questions so yeah so is are there any consequences for health in machines

so answer is we don't know yet uh right now most of the devices are being used like the guys game

They use kits using games. For example, Oculus Rift is a Facebook and Microsoft HoloLens is Microsoft

I use Microsoft HoloLens and after using for half an hour, it's not good

It feels like heavy and feels like that. And I'm sure it's going to have a lot of mental health effects on physical bodies

There's no question there. But since there's not enough data, it's hard to tell what kind of data, right

even though they're saying it won't have much because it has to be approved by the

FDA, FDC or whatever FDA. So we will see. The answer is we will see

We don't know the effects, but it's definitely going to have some bad effects. It's not going to be good

Even look at the phones, right? Phone even have effects. Forget about these 3D devices, right

So for Metaverse, do we must have any gear? Yes. So Metaverse is all about 3D

It's not, it's more, it's like, so you have to have some kind of devices to view and experience it

It's not a 2D, it's not a screen only, right? Sure, you can use AR, AR is a part of metaverse

You can use your phone. That's part of metaverse. But in the real one will be, you will need some kind of, yeah, gear to view it

Yes. Yes. Can we use this as a virtual meetings? Yeah, exactly

So virtual meet Microsoft Teams has already launched in Metaverse. So that's first application of Microsoft Metaverse is the Teams

In Teams now you can even use your 2D screens, AR, VR, and you can use avatars

So all those combinations. So that's going to be, I think, first major business application, which is already we are seeing it

Now let's take another question that, yeah, so what skill sets are required to evolve

So skill sets are all about really what technology and what company and what you're targeting

So if you're building applications, metaverse applications for HoloLens, Microsoft, all you need is C-sharp and maybe Azure Cloud

Yes. So if you are a C-sharp and .NET developers, you can start building UWP HoloLens application right now

I have built HoloLens applications already and they said this is similar technical skills you need for metaverse

And also then connecting to Azure and all that. So, Microsoft Mesh is the technology

So, Simon, if you search Microsoft Mesh, there is SDKs and there is learning stuff already out there

That's what you want to learn. Search for is Microsoft Mesh. M-E-S-H