December 17, 2021 (5:00 p.m. Western Time, 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time), December 18th, 9:00 a.m. Beijing time. The 13th Internet Mission Forum IMF2021 was co-hosted by Ecumenical Gospel, Overseas Campus, Pilgrim Ministry, Miracle Communication, Far East Radio, and Far East Evangelical Association. It lasted 3 hours and was successfully held online via Zoom and YouTube. As a brother in the Lord, as a 28-year IT practitioner and a new Christian, Xiao Lin participated in sharing topics about the development of VR and the metaverse category.
VR (Virtual Reality) is translated as "virtual reality" in Hong Kong and Taiwan, while it is translated as "virtual reality" in mainland China. Kobayashi's method of deconstruction is to start from the dimension, that is, the "point", "line" and "surface" that are easier for everyone to understand. From 2D (two-dimensional) to 3D (three-dimensional) to the dimension, we live in three-dimensional space. It is difficult to understand the four-dimensional and different dimensions, such as Doraemon's four-dimensional pocket. So what is the dimension or dimension that we can easily understand? In fact, it is not too difficult to understand from the concept of "two-dimensional" that is familiar to the post-80s and post-90s, that is, different narrative and expression methods such as animation, comics, games, and novels.
The book of Ecclesiastes says: "There is nothing new under the sun." When Facebook announced the name change to Meta and Zuckerberg released various concept videos, everyone can think of "Avatar-Avatar" and "Matrix-Matrix Empire" In movie scenes, the experience of wearing Oculus to connect to the Internet is not new. As early as 1942, Mattel released the View-Master. This is a historical toy that once caused a boom in the United States. It is like a small slide machine, similar to the kaleidoscopes played by many children. It allows children to insert slide cassettes with different themes and play 14 slides with stories. Over the past few decades, hundreds of them have been launched. It was a product, and a 3D version was released later, which can be said to be a well-known action storybook at that time.
So what exactly is virtual reality? A simple definition is to use computer simulation to generate a three-dimensional virtual world, providing users with simulations of vision and other senses, so that users feel as if they are personally on the scene, and can observe things in three-dimensional space instantly and without restrictions. When the user moves the location, the computer can immediately perform complex calculations and send back the accurate three-dimensional world image to generate a sense of presence. This technology integrates the latest developments in computer graphics, computer simulation, artificial intelligence, sensing, display, and network parallel processing. It is a high-tech simulation system assisted by computer technology.
A typical virtual reality device consists of at least one screen, a set of sensors, and a set of computing components, which are assembled in this device. The screen is used to display the simulated image, which is projected on the user's retina, the sensor is used to sense the user's rotation angle, and the computing component collects the data from the sensor to determine what is displayed on the screen. Additional equipment may include a high-end computer to supplement the computing components. There may also be a pair of handles and locators to detect the user's position.
So what does virtual reality have to do with the metaverse? In fact, as early as the early 1990s, when Qian Xuesen learned about "Virtual Reality", he thought of applying it to the level of human-computer integration and human brain development, and named it "Spiritual Realm". He believes that the emergence and development of Lingjing technology will expand the perception of the human brain and the experience of human-computer integration, bringing the combination of human and computer into an era of deep integration.
As for the definition of the metaverse, there are a hundred Hamlets or Sister Lin (Lin Daiyu) in the eyes of a hundred people, and it will be difficult to reach a consensus for a while. In fact, Cyberspace is a kind of Metaverse, and entering the Metaverse is not just a form of virtual reality.
According to the type of interaction, it can be roughly divided into five types:
1. Text (text), such as novels, BBS (electronic bulletin board) or MUD (mud game) on the Internet.
2. Image (image), a typical example is comics, and now we can find image social applications like Instagram, and early image sites like Flickr.
3. Audio (audio), traditional radio, Podcasts on the Internet and the recently popular Clubhouse voice social application.
4. Video (video), such as animation and movies, in which a unique virtual world (or universe) is constructed, such as DC and Marvel. Like Meta and QQ are two parallel universes. Houseparty, which was closed by Epic Games in September 2021, is also a typical video social application. Opening the software is like opening a family, and friends are always welcome to chat and drink coffee. In addition, there is Zoom, a rising star in the past two years.
5. Multimedia (Multimedia). If the first four interaction methods are mainly passive, games are more active for users. The early Second Life, the popular Minecraft, Roblox, Fortnite in recent years and the recent explosion of Sandbox Sandbox games, etc., have extremely complex world concepts in them.
On the issue of virtual (VR) or augmented (AR), Kobayashi agrees more with AR (Augmented Reality) augmented reality experience, which lists three typical products: Meta Oculus, HTC Vive, Google Cardboard, but some companies also have Set foot in the AR field, such as: Google Glass, other AR products and applications such as Microsoft HoloLens, Rokid Air have already had good application cases in the AR industry.