A survey on the awareness on Virtual Reality, Internet of Things and Blockchain in the 4th IR era

Abstract

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4th IR) is hastily reshaping the global industry. The term is often used as a semantical umbrella to describe state-of-art technological advances that improve the quality, the productivity and the efficiency of the industrial and societal processes. It combines developments in the disciplines of Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Robotics, Internet of Things, Genetic Engineering, Quantum Computing and Blockchain. Metaverse itself, in the form of AI-fueled 4D virtual reality space is redefining the way humans and machines are interacting with themselves and with each other. To maximize the positive impact of the 4th IR, it is essential that the underlying mechanisms are conceivable and assimilated by everyone. In this paper we investigate the awareness of the general population on Virtual Reality, Internet of Things and Blockchain technologies under the framework of the 4th Industrial Revolution. A literature review on the core 4th IR technologies, supplemented with a combined questionnaire survey is presented. The work aims to quantify the awareness of the general population on the technologies that contribute the most to the 4th industrial revolution.