Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality

What is augmented reality and virtual reality?

Augmented reality (AR) is the integration of digital information with the user's environment in real time. Unlike virtual reality (VR), which creates a totally artificial environment, AR users experience a real-world environment with generated perceptual information overlaid on top of it.

Augmented reality is used to either visually change natural environments in some way or to provide additional information to users. The primary benefit of AR is that it manages to blend digital and three-dimensional (3D) components with an individual's perception of the real world. AR has a variety of uses, from helping in decision-making to entertainment.

AR delivers visual elements, sound and other sensory information to the user through a device like a smartphone or glasses. This information is overlaid onto the device to create an interwoven experience where digital information alters the user's perception of the real world. The overlaid information can be added to an environment or mask part of the natural environment.

Virtual reality is a simulated 3D environment that enables users to explore and interact with a virtual surrounding in a way that approximates reality, as it is perceived through the users' senses. The environment is created with computer hardware and software, although users might also need to wear devices such as helmets or goggles to interact with the environment. The more deeply users can immerse themselves in a VR environment -- and block out their physical surroundings -- the more they are able to suspend their belief and accept it as real, even if it is fantastical in nature.

VR is a virtual environment created with software and presented to users in such a way that their brain suspends belief long enough to accept a virtual world as a real environment. Virtual reality is primarily experienced through a headset with sight and sound.

The biggest difference between AR and VR is that augmented reality uses the existing real-world environment and puts virtual information on top of it, whereas VR completely immerses users in a virtually rendered environment. While VR puts the user in a new, simulated environment, AR places the user in a sort of mixed reality.

The devices used to accomplish this are different, too. VR uses VR headsets that fit over the user's head and present them with simulated visual and audio information. AR devices are less restrictive and typically include devices like phones, glasses, projections and HUDs in cars.

In VR, people are placed inside a 3D environment in which they can move around and interact with the generated environment. AR, however, keeps users grounded in the real-world environment, overlaying virtual data as a visual layer within the environment.

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