Metaverse: Virtual and Augmented Reality Presence

More and more, our daily lives are entwined with technology. Our interactions with other people increasingly take place in virtual encounters. Many different concepts have appeared to describe the various virtual experiences that we might have. Recently the idea of the Metaverse has become prominent as a way to describe the digital realm in which we interact with objects, environments, and other people. But there is disagreement and confusion about what the Metaverse actually is. This review aims to bring different concepts and meanings to technologies that sometimes work in a complementary way to enable the Metaverse. Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality, the Web or the Internet, and Blockchain or Distributed Ledger Technology are some concepts discussed and compared in this paper. After a clarification of their differences and similarities, this study also presents the concept of the Metaverse, a complex virtual world where many activities, including commerce, can take place and where avatars may be used to facilitate social experiences and make them feel more like real interactions. The methodology used in this study was a mix of Literature Review and Critical Review and the results presented show characteristics and particularities that allow a better understanding of virtual technologies and the Metaverse.