Virtual & Augmented Reality 101
500 years ago, we had libraries full of books.
100 years ago, we had black and white films.
More recently, movies have been releasing regularly as entertainment.
Now, we have virtual and augmented reality.

In a nutshell, virtual reality is a computer-generated simulation of a 3D image or environment. Generally, it is used while wearing headsets.
Picture this. You’re walking from one room to another in your house. You should be seeing the walls of each room or the decor, but you’re not. Instead, you’re walking along the Great Wall of China, or swimming alongside dolphins, or floating through space. Now, for people who have never been to China or gone swimming or become an astronaut, this is only a dream.
Except, it can become reality.
What is virtual reality?
Virtual reality is the creation of a fully immersive environment without the boundaries associated with a television or computers. The first VR headset was created in 1968 and continued to develop throughout the years. VR hit the peak of its popularity in the 2010s, which is when VR festivals also started to emerge.
The process: how virtual reality works.
VR headsets can work in two ways:
- two feeds are sent to one display
- two LCD displays are used, one per eye.
There are also convex lenses placed between your eyes and the images.
The lenses are a necessary contributing factor to the virtual reality headset. These lenses are used to change flat images to 3D ones by focusing and reshaping the image.
A common myth is that VR headsets have a 360˚ view, when in fact all that is needed is a 100˚ to 110˚ view. The minimum amount of frames per second is 60, to avoid users feeling sick. However, leading companies in the VR industry, such as Oculus, currently have 90 to 120 frames per second (fps).
Head Tracking.
Head tracking simulates freely exploring the virtual reality world, making the experience more immersive. This means that if you look down, the image you are looking at will change. If you look up, the image you are looking at will make you feel as though you are actually looking up.
The way this works is that your head movements are plotted through a system called 6 Degrees of Freedom (6DoF). This allows measurement of all head movements, whether left or right, up or down, or diagonally.
For VR to work effectively, it needs to be relatively fast-working, around 50 milliseconds or less. Otherwise, when we turn our heads, there will be a lag, resulting in a less positive experience.
Finally, teenagers usually wear headphones or earbuds to distance themselves from reality. Headphones can also be used with the VR headset to fully immerse yourself in the virtual reality. Hearing sounds that relate to the digital simulation allows you to feel as though the experience is real, what you are looking at is real, and what you are hearing is real.
Motion Tracking.

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could act within a virtual reality experience? Motion tracking makes this possible through sets of controllers that allow you to feel as though you are using your own hands. For example, you can squeeze a hand trigger on a controller to cause a gun to fire. Often, these controllers have sensors to track other movements such as waving your hands around.
Leading VR companies are still working on and developing motion tracking.
Eye Tracking.
Eye tracking is useful to make the VR experience more realistic by increasing the depth of the section where you are looking. This is done through sensors, infrared sensors, more specifically. This infrared sensor monitors your eyes within the headset, allowing it to track the motion of your eyes.
What is augmented reality?
Augmented reality, in basic terms, is a computer-enhanced view of a real-world environment. It is more accessible than virtual reality, as most people have phones, but not everyone has a VR headset.
Remember a couple of years ago when Pokemon Go was popular? It was made possible with augmented reality.
A lot of us use Google Maps. Google has also now incorporated augmented reality into their software. If you don’t know where you are, you can access the AR feature to allow Google to help you figure out where you are and what steps you must take to reach your destination.
Evidently, augmented reality has the potential to be integrated into everyday society. Already, many companies are finding ways to use AR.
There are three different ways AR can work.
SLAM.
SLAM stands for Simultaneous Localization and Mapping. It works through a set of algorithms aimed at solving simultaneous localization and mapping, hence the name. It localizes sensors, respectful of their surroundings, while also mapping the environment. SLAM is the most effective way to create virtual images over real objects.
Recognition Based.
Recognition based augmented reality brings us back to the Google Maps example. It recognizes markers or objects through a camera, and shows an overlay when it senses a marker. This is entirely dependent on the camera recognizing that the marker is not an ordinary object.
The marker image, as well as the location and orientation, are calculated and is turned into a virtual 3D image once it is recognized that the correlating image is a marker. This allows the viewer to see the image in more detail; if the marker is rotated, the virtual image will also rotate.

Location Based.
Location-based AR requires a GPS or another location tracking device (e.g. digital compass, velocity metre, accelerometer), as it requires data. The AR is based on these inputs. Location-based AR is also known as markerless augmented reality — the name is self-explanatory.
Since smartphones having a location detecting feature, location-based AR is quite easy to leverage, increasing its popularity.
Location-based AR examples that many of us use are directions and finding services nearby.
“I do think that a significant portion of the population of developed countries, and eventually all countries, will have AR experiences every day, almost like eating three meals a day. It will become that much a part of you.”
— Tim Cook
Virtual and augmented reality have the potential to majorly disrupt society in the coming years, more so the latter. The future of healthcare, entertainment, and education, just to name a few, will change exponentially.
Key Takeaways
- virtual reality is approaching the height of its popularity
- VR incorporates three ways to immerse the user further into the experience — head tracking, motion tracking, and eye tracking
- AR works in three ways — SLAM, recognition, and location
- AR & VR are going to majorly disrupt society
