Metaverse as one of the Drivers of

Web 3.0
Slides courtesy: Dr. Ibrahim Ghaznavi
Web
Web
- “web" typically refers to the World Wide Web (WWW), which is a
system of interlinked hypertext documents and multimedia content
accessed via the internet using web browsers.
- Web pages may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia
elements.
Evolution of Web
Web 1.0
- Static web
- Less interactive
- Mostly websites with text avoiding pictures/videos. Types of
interactions allowed were only comments or contacting the author.

MSN, Yahoo, Govt. etc

Web 2.0
- Users can consume as well as generate content on the internet.

- Centralization of data by technology giants like:

Youtube,
Facebook and
Twitter.
Web 3.0
- Web 3.0 refers to the next iteration of the internet based on decentralized blockchain
technologies.
- Unlike Web 2.0, people are in control of their data instead companies.
- Features
- Data ownership
- Privacy
- Security
- Opportunity (open-source)

* Image reference: https://blockcast.cc/news/what-is-the-driving-force-for-us-to-actively-embrace-web3-0/

Why Web 3.0?
- Tech giants control the internet; they have the power to
control/restrict access. It makes the internet fragile.
- Peer-to-peer networks: groups of computers acting as nodes to share
files and record transactions.
- The user will have more control over personal data (privacy).
- The websites are served to the visitors by the users;
- User writes access rules.
 Web 2.0 vs Web 3.0

Table reference: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337768739_Journey_of_Web_20_to_Web_30

Web 3.0 building blocks
 Blockchain

Web 3.0 Crypto & NFTs

Metaverse

Semantic Web
Blockchain
‘ A distributed ledger that maintains a continuously growing list of
transactions/records, called blocks’

Features:

- Immutability (can’t be erased)

- Secure
- Accuracy
- Transparency (public)
- Speed
Blockchain (Dev)
- Solidity to write a smart contract.
- Ethereum EVM establishes a peer-to-peer network and securely executes
application code
- Hardhat is the Ethereum development environment that helps in testing,
compiling, and deploying on Ethereum Blockchain.
- Metamask wallet - store tokens, interact with decentralized applications
Cryptocurrency
‘A decentralized digital currency that you can buy, sell and exchange directly, without an intermediary
like a Bank’

Crypto Features:
- Decentralised
- Highly available
- Public

Popular cryptocurrencies:
- Bitcoin 20976$
- Ethereum 1553$
- Tether 1$
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs)
‘A unique Cryptographic asset stored on a blockchain.’

Features:
- It can’t be replicated.
- Enforce ownership over digital assets.
- Can be bought or sold securely.

Pricing:
The Merge 91.8 M $
CryptoPunk 23.7M $
Semantic Web
‘A proposed version of the internet on which web pages are machine
readable.’

- Most of the internet data today is human-readable.

- Most webpages and websites must be transformed before machines
can use them.
- We need to append meta-data to all websites on the internet to make
them machine-readable.
- We need the machine-readable version of the web to bake intelligence
into it via ML/AI.
Metaverses built on
Blockchain technologies
Metaverses
‘Three dimensional Internet populated with live people’ ~ Philip
Rosedale (inventor of Second life)

- It consists of people and the environment

- It enables social interaction, collaboration, and transaction
Artificial Intelligence and Virtuality
Conference 2020
 Second Life, 2003

- Social gatherings,
- Live concerts,
- Press conferences
- Attend college classes
Massive Multi-player Role-
Playing Games
- Habbo Hotel
- World of Warcraft
- Minecraft
- Fortnite
Facebook’s Horizon worlds

- Create virtual worlds

- Creators could sell virtual items and experiences within their worlds.
- Reward programs for creators
Avatars
Work rooms
Meeting rooms
Outdoor VR evironment
Marketplace
Rock climbing
Masjid Nabwi (VR 360)

https://vr.qurancomplex.gov.sa/msq/
In Summary
- Blockchain technologies power the Metaverse ecosystem and Web3.0
- Popular Metaverses rely on digital currencies to exchange value.
- XR technologies are a gateway to accessing Metaverses
- Assets within the metaverse are sometimes traded as NFTs
Metaverse technologies
Virtual Reality
‘Virtual reality (VR) is a computer-generated simulation of a three-
dimensional image or environment that can be interacted with in a seemingly
real or physical way by a person using special electronic equipment.’

Features:
- User is in Control: real-time head tracking, Full-body tracking (via body suits)
- Offers natural interactions: Gestures (controllers, hand and finger tracking),
speech
- Sense of presence: Immersion, rich visual graphics, spatial audio, haptic
feedback (vibrators).
 Types of VR
Virtual Reality

Fully-Immersive

Non-Immersive Semi- Immersive

HMD based
Screen-based Wall projectors Room size

Vehicle Airplane
Cave
Simulator Simulator
Adapted from:
Muhanna, Muhanna A. "Virtual reality and the CAVE: Taxonomy, interaction challenges and research directions." Journal of King Saud
University-Computer and Information Sciences 27.3 (2015): 344-361.
Immersive VS Non-Immersive
Non-immersive VR ImmersiveVR
- 3D model - 3D models
- Animations - Animations
- Light & shadows - Light & shadows
- Physics
- Spatial Sound
- Environment
- Voice / Speech
- Controllers / Hands
- GUI Menus
VR Headsets
- High-end
Pico Neo 3 (eye) HTC Vive Pro 2

- Mobile VR

Google’s Cardboard Samsung GearVR Google Daydream

Degrees of Freedom
Popular VR experiences
Beat Saber (Play)
Tilt brush (Paint)
Google Earth VR (Travel)
Augmented reality
‘An enhanced version of reality created by the use of
technology to overlay digital information on an image of
something being viewed through a device (such as a
smartphone camera)’

Features:

- Combines reality and virtual objects

- Takes into account the surrounding conditions before
augmenting
- Offers interactions
- Explicit
- Implicit (Autonomous)
Types of AR
Marker-based
‘Scanning a marker triggers an augmented experience (object, text,
video or animation) to appear on the device.’
Marker-less
Markerless Augmented Reality scans the real environment and places
digital elements on a recognizable feature, like a flat surface
AR Displays
Strong VS Weak AR
Strong AR Weak AR

Highly accurate tracking Imprecise tracking

Natural interaction Mostly implicit interaction

Head mounted Hand held

Understands and Not aware of the

Incorporate surroundings surroundings
AR headsets
High-end:
Holo lens 2 (3500$)

Low-end: Holo kit (17$)

Popular AR Experiences
AR experience
(Entertainment)
Wanna Kicks (shopping)
Rayban (Shopping)
CARpet(Education)
Virtual Reality vs Augmented
Reality
VR AR
Replaces reality Enhances reality

The complete environment Virtual characters or

and characters are objects overlayed onto the
computer generated physical world
As everything is virtual, The environment is reality;
therefore, more effort is therefore, the effort is
needed in terms of creating required just to
or gathering assets to design/create a
construct the environment. character(s) or object(s)
that needs to be projected
onto reality.
Lighting and colors etc., AR applications usually
needs to be adjusted all adapt to the lighting
together conditions of their
Mixed Reality
‘A medium consisting of immersive computer-generated environments
in which elements of a physical and virtual environment are combined’
Unlike augmented reality, you can manipulate projected holograms in
mixed reality.
Features:
- You need a headset to experience MR.
- Synonymous with AR.
- AR can be experienced without a headset (with mobile).
MR Examples
MR hardware
Meta Quest Pro
Extended reality (XR)
AR + VR + MR
Adapted from Prof. Nebelings XR MOOC
XR Continuum
XR Tool Selection
Developers
- IDEs: Unity/ Unreal
- Frameworks: MRTK, SteamVR, Frameworks: AR Foundation, Vuforia, ARcore (android)/ ARKit
- Toolkits: XR interaction toolkit

Designers:
Blender
Adobe Substance 3D Modeler

Accessories:
- Full-body suit
- Omni-directional treadmill
- Face tracking
Unity Unreal
C# C++
Supports additional (to Supports mainstream
mainstream) platforms: Web platforms like iOS, Android, VR,
Player, WebGL, HoloLens, Linux, Windows PC, Mac OS X,
Windows Phone 8, Tizen, SteamOS, HTML5, Xbox One,
Android TV, Samsung SMART and PS4
TV, 360 Windows PC
Compromise on graphics to More realistic graphics.
offer greater platform
coverage.
Unity is paid back if a Unreal is paid 5% of the
developer earns more than revenue if it goes above $3,000
100,000$ (Annually) per game (Quarterly)
Need multi-player plugins Build-in multiplayer support

Has powerful support for Advanced features:

mobile devices, more than AI behavior trees, Complex
unreal. animation logic, Game saving
system, Multi-player, Gameplay
Prototyping XR experiences
VR and Cinema Analogy
Director VR Designer or Developer

Actors XR designer (Scenes) +

3D models + Animations
(Custom or already made)

Lights XR designer

Sound XR designer

Effects XR Developer
VR Environment
- Environment
- Physical
- Virtual
- 3D Characters Context of VE
- Avatars
- 3D models
- Data

Story of VE - Interactions
- Explicit
- Implicit
Sketching
Google Blocks or Tilt brush
Physical prototyping
Photogrammetry