AR and VR Notes

• Augmented Reality (AR): Technology that overlays digital information onto the real world through devices like smartphones or AR glasses.

• Virtual Reality (VR): Immersive technology that creates a completely synthetic environment that users can interact with using VR headsets.

Augmented Reality (AR)

AR enhances the real world by overlaying digital information such as images, sounds, or text onto the physical environment using devices like smartphones, tablets, or AR glasses.

• AR has a variety of uses, from assisting in the decision-making process to entertainment.

• AR 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.

Augmented reality (AR) is an enhanced version of the real world, achieved through the use of computer-generated digital information. These include visual, sound, and other sensory elements.

• AR uses computer hardware and software, such as apps, consoles, screens, or projections, to combine digital information with the real-world environment.

• AR delivers visual elements, sound and other sensory information to the user through a device like a smartphone, glasses or a headset.

This information is overlaid onto the device to create an interwoven and immersive experience where digital information alters the user's perception of the physical world.

• The overlaid information can be added to an environment or mask part of the natural environment.

In recent years, several technology companies have released APIs such as Apple’s ARKit and Google’s Arcore, which facilitate the development of mobile AR applications for Android and iOS.

Examples:

• Interactive product demonstrations

• Mobile AR apps like Pokemon GO

• Virtual home try-ons (e.g., furniture placement apps)

Virtual Reality (VR)

VR immerses users in a fully digital environment using headsets and motion controllers, blocking out the physical world entirely.

Virtual Reality (VR), the use of computer modeling and simulation that enables a person to interact with an artificial three-dimensional (3-D) visual or another sensory environment.

• VR applications immerse the user in a computer-generated environment that simulates reality through the use of interactive devices, which send and receive information and are worn as goggles, headsets, gloves, or body suits.

In a typical VR format, a user wearing a helmet with a stereoscopic screen views animated images of a simulated environment. The illusion of “being there” (telepresence) is affected by motion sensors that pick up the user’s movements and adjust the view on the screen accordingly, usually in real time (the instant the user’s movement takes place).

Examples:

• Gaming experiences (e.g., Beat Saber)

• Virtual tours of real estate or museums

• Training simulations for pilots, surgeons, and more

Key Differences Between AR and VR

Key Differences Between AR and VR

| VR | AR |
| :--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |.
| Fully Artificial Environment | Virtual Objects overlayed on the real-world environment |
| Completely immersed in the virtual environment | The real world enhanced with digital objectives |
| VR headset gear is required to experience the Virtual world | In contrast, AR just requires AR compatible smart device to enjoy the experience |
| VR lets you experience standing on Seashore or on the erupting volcano | It lets you check out the furniture at the house or the watch looks on your wrist, etc. |
| Technology is Expensive and has practical limitations towards expansion | Whereas AR is cost-effective and can be created through apps |
| Developed using Unreal Engine (UE4), Maya, Sketchup and many more | AR is developed using Special 3D programs |