VR, AR, and MR…What Are They?
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In recent years, technology has rapidly changed the way we interact with the digital world. There are two terms that have been used over the past few years that may sound familiar. VR, Virtual Reality, and AR, or Augmented Reality. One you probably haven’t heard of as much is MR, or Mixed Reality.
All three of these terms have been used to describe products like the Oculus… or rather “Meta” Quest, Microsoft’s HoloLens, and the Apple Vision Pro … But what do these terms mean?! Today, we're diving into the world of VR, AR, and MR to explore the differences, where each shine, and their real-world impacts.
Let's start with the easiest to describe…VR. Virtual Reality is like stepping into a whole new world. By wearing a VR headset, users are presented with a digitally simulated environment, detached from the physical world. It's all about immersion, where users can interact and explore as if they were physically present within these virtual surroundings.
When it comes to AR, there has been a lot of discussion over what the term should mean. Essentially it means digital content overlaid, or “augmented”, on top the REAL WORLD. This can be a digital map projected on a real surface like a table, or a small display that shows GPS based navigation to a nearby restaurant or shop. (remember Google Glass?).
Shopping can be enhanced by showing a digital model of the item in the real world using a cell phone and there are even medical devices that can overlay veins on top of the skin to make drawing blood easier. Just remember that the digital elements are not interactive and just exist over reality.
MR is a term that used to be considered AR but has kind of split into it’s own term. It’s basically a combination of both VR and AR since it’s a “mixture” of the two. Get it? Mixed Reality? It allows for an interactive digital element to be displayed on top of the real world.
Think 3D board game on a real table where you can actually move the animated pieces around. This is the direction a lot of companies are moving in since it blends the two worlds together.. Not to mention that it helps keep you from running into walls.
Let’s break it down… VR is an interactive digital world outside of the real world, AR is the real world but with digital elements added to it, MR is a mixture of the real world and digital elements that you can interact with, and reality is still just plain reality.
Just remember that none of these are “better” than the other. It all comes down to utility or preference. You can visit different galaxies in VR, battle a friend from a different part of the world with hologram battleships flying through your living room in MR, or check if that new dresser you’re looking at would look good in your bedroom with AR.
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