What’s the difference between AR, VR, and MR?
Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) are some of the most commonly thrown around words today. A grave misconception is that these terms all mean the same thing. They do not!
Augmented Reality
There was a time when Pokémon Go took the world by storm. People were always hooked onto their screens, trying to locate that virtual Pokémon in the real world. This is one of the best examples of Augmented Reality. It is a form of technology that superimposes computer-generated enhancements over an already existing reality to make it more interesting. To put in simple words, it is a fabricated version of the actual reality.
You don’t always need special devices to experience AR. It can be experienced through smartphone cameras too, as in the case of Pokémon Go. Even certain filters on Snapchat use Augmented reality. Devices like Google Glass have also been designed for the sole purpose of involving ourselves in this reality. Augmented reality is all about to layering audio, graphics and other sensory enhancements over a real-world environment. There are some interesting applications of this in business too.
IKEA-The Swedish furniture company was one of the first companies to implement AR in their business. They released an app known as
‘IKEA Place’ that allows users to test furniture, by virtually placing it onto different parts of your house.
YELP- It is an online directory used for discovering local businesses. This bought a special feature into their apps known as ‘Monocle’, that allows you to see the ratings and descriptions of the restaurant that your camera focuses on.
Virtual Reality
Ever wondered what the cardboard icon on YouTube is used for? When we use special headsets known as VR headsets, it gives us a completely immersive experience of the video by helping us view it in 360-degree mode. This is Virtual Reality (VR).
Unlike Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality does not just enhance the existing reality. It completely blocks it out and replaces it with a new reality. It is a form of technology that is used to create an immersive, simulated environment. VR is used to place users in- “another world”.
Virtual Reality can be viewed simply by using a VR app on your smartphone, but it is always better to use a special headset. This is mainly because VR is a simulated environment, that is, whatever you can see or hear will not be the same as your current surroundings. There are many different VR headsets like Oculus Rift, Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR.
Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML), is the programming language that is used to simulate an alternate environment in VR. It does this by creating a sequence of images and identifies the kind of interactions possible among these images. There are plenty of applications for this technology.
Gaming-Probably the most popular use of VR. Nothing could be more addicting than having a complete gaming experience, where you believe that you are the chosen knight that is required to battle dragons!
Data Science-This is an application that is still being explored. It uses VR to help visualize data in the 3-D format with
360- degree rotation so that we can analyze it from different angles and play with the data. A company by the name VIRTUALITICS is implementing this into their business.
Mixed Reality
Mixed Reality is probably the most thrilling of the three terms mentioned. This latest form of technology is formed by combining the best of both worlds. While VR completely changes the reality, MR simply alters it. However, it is still contrasting to AR. Augmented Reality only required digitally enhanced objects to be placed onto the screen that mirrors our environment, but MR gives the user permission to control these objects. They can zoom in or out of each object and move it from one place to another. MR enhances reality, which makes it similar to AR. It also enables the objects to be manipulated, which makes it similar to VR.
As it is not highly ventured into, it does not have many applications yet. One of its most prominent application is Microsoft HoloLens.
This device allows users to experience 3D holograms as if they were a part of the actual surroundings. It has many applications such as design, data analysis, medical imaging, standard computing, and gaming.
All the three topics are roughly summarized in the figure below
Thank You for Reading!
