The quicker technologies like augmented reality evolve, the quicker everyone seems to think they’re all related, or all the same thing. New social media apps are often perceived to replicate the functions of their competitors, while others assume the newest tech is owned by the biggest, baddest tech companies out there.
This can put a huge damper on progress, on consumer acceptance of new tech, and of market buy-in as a whole. We’re stubborn, silly creatures, us human beings - and when we fail to educate ourselves or let the opinions of the masses inform our thinking, we can miss out on some pretty exciting stuff.
The two very different terms ‘augmented reality’ (AR) and ‘virtual reality’ (VR) get thrown around a lot as interchangeable technologies that have very similar functions - so a lot of people assume they’re the same - but they’re not.
The monumental success of augmented reality -based game, Pokemon Go , triggered mainstream adoption of AR tech, while the Oculus Rift VR headset rekindled an interest in virtual reality. As these technologies continue to develop and evolve, their underlying concepts can blend together a bit, and that’s OK with us - but AR and VR are very different concepts.
So What’s Virtual Reality?
Virtual Reality headsets like the HTC Vive , Oculus Rift , and Valve Index are completely immersive experience-based generators that take over your entire field of vision with opaque blinders. When they’re off, it’s just like having your eyes closed. They work, in essence, by LED or OLED panels being refracted by lenses to display a virtual reality setting. It could be a vast wild landscape, a medieval battleground, or it could place you on top of Mount Everest.
In short, VR tech allows you to be visually transported to another place, essentially seeking to replace your physical reality with a visual one for a period of time. They’re strategically designed to help your brain register being elsewhere, which makes them a powerful agent of experience-based applications.
Tethered VR headsets use six-degree-of-freedom (6DOF) motion tracking technology which use external sensors and cameras, allowing the headset to not only track your head movements to update your field of vision, but any movement you decide to take in any direction so you can navigate virtual space as if you’re actually there. That space is often limited to a few square meters. Be careful not to trip over the cord that tethers you to the VR interface - these things are pretty realistic!
To make things even more exciting on the go or even at home - untethered hardware like the Oculus Quest using inside out tracking - allow for full immersion in games like Vader Immortal.
The underlying thought behind VR is taking you to a physical location you cannot occupy, right now. The power and allure of VR technology is its ability to transcend your local environment and replace your perception of reality with an entirely new digital space. Pretty cool stuff.
How About Augmented Reality?
Augmented Reality on the other hand, adds digital elements to your vision, rather than seeks to replace it outright. WebAR is here, which rids users of having to download and use cumbersome apps, helping to elevate the level of immersion, but it still falls short of the full-vision immersion found in VR by comparison.
While most VR uses a 6DOF interface, augmented reality functions perfectly fine using a three-degrees-of-freedom (3DOF) system when it projects an object into your field of vision. Most AR applications utilize 6DOF to track a users’ physical location so the app software can maintain a grasp on consistent positioning to deliver a fast and aesthetically pleasing image in 3D space.
While AR may fall short in the immersive experience department, it more than makes up for it when it comes to application diversity. Augmented reality is nearly limitless in its capability from a real-life usage perspective; it has the power to totally transform our everyday lives to integrate technology into our realm of consciousness.
Let’s imagine you’re walking down the street looking for a spot to grab a bite. Smartphone-based AR tech is already more than capable of recognizing your physical surroundings and providing information in real-time on your screen, or in the frame of your smart glasses. This info-centric take blends a digital and traditional reality to form a hybridized view of your individual life.
AR, in this sense, is ridiculously adaptable, absurdly powerful, and bound by little more than your own curiosity. It’s got the power and usefulness to completely change how the masses use computer technology and how we interact with our surroundings by adding to our reality, rather than seeking to replace it.
Let’s Recap!
Virtual reality is all about replacing your visual reality with a prescribed representation of an alternate space; it’s sole purpose is to transport people elsewhere and present visual information with a full-immersion experience in mind.
Augmented Reality, on the other hand, cannot fully take over your vision, but instead seeks to add to your current reality by projecting useful information on your field of vision in real space.
MagicLeap founder, Rony Abovitz, says the term AR in a popular culture sense, is interpreted by people to include the act of pointing a phone at something - but as augmented reality tech moves forward, we could see the phone become optional, and wearable mobile-based hardware like glasses become more highly-immersive. Smart glasses technology like the Epson Moverio , Vuzix Blade , and NReal Light use augmented reality to project objects in real-space in front of your eyes through the predominant use of AR apps.
Looking at both technologies from a wider scope - augmented reality is essentially limitless in terms of what it can and cannot present to users while VR has profound benefits and capabilities in powerhouse industries like gaming and mental health therapy, for example.
Our prediction is to ultimately see AR and VR technologies become more heavily integrated in a pseudo collaborative and supportive way, integrating mainstream technological devices to assume the position of welcome providers of both knowledge and entertainment. This concept of AR and VR blitzed together is referred to as Mixed Reality , essentially a hybridization of the real world and the virtual world to create impactful experiences and opportunities; but that’s a topic for another day.
Augmented and virtual reality are related, but very different. They differ in how they present human occupation of space and offer a sense of informational and spatial freedom.
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~ KP9 Interactive Team
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