Virtual reality VS Augmented reality VS Mixed reality [EXPLAINED]

VIRTUAL REALITY VS AUGMENTED REALITY

Virtual reality and augmented reality have been around for quite some time now. They have experienced their days of glory. And almost everyone knows about them. But mixed reality is comparatively less popular among “non-techy” people right now. So what are all these and more importantly what are the differences between the three? Read more to find out.

 In this article we are going to discuss about virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality. After reading this article you would surely be able to differentiate between the three of them and you would be knowing all a person should in general about all three i.e VR vs AR vs MR. so let’s just get started.

 WHAT IS VIRTUAL REALITY ?

Well speaking about Wikipedia the definition according to them is

 “ Virtual reality is an experience taking place within simulated and immersive environments that can be similar to or completely different from the real world. Applications of VR can include entertainment and educational purposes.”

Now if that goes over your head too like it used to happen to me or it’s just too technical sounding for you let me just explain it to you in easy words. What happens in VR? In VR you just create an other environment in which you can work or play games or even watch something. Well it’s not a real environment [that is why it is called virtual. Duh!!!!] how can you do it? You just need some equipment but that we shall discuss later in this article itself.

For now what you need to understand is that virtual reality is creating a separate environment for your use with the help of some special equipment [not so special nowadays]. It’s main motive is to create a environment so special that even the person experiencing it may get confused that is a real environment or just a fake one. There are mainly three types of VR and all of the three are explained below:-

 COMPONENTS REQUIRED IN A VR SETUP

The components required to set up a VR setup can be mainly divided into 3 parts

è Computer

è Head mounted display

è Input devices

COMPUTER:- if we are saying a computer that does not mean it needs to be a pc other things like gaming consoles or even smartphones can be used to create a virtual environment. All these act as the engines for the VR setup and process all the graphical data and other stuff. So clearly they need to be powerful enough in order to fulfill all this and provide the user with a good experience.

HMD:- head mounted display or HMD is the key component of a virtual reality setup. It contains a display mounted in the front part and the display is designed so as to cover the whole field of view for a person. This display displays the content specially made for VR.

INPUT DEVICES:-these are a bit different from traditional input devices and they provide the users a way to interact with the environment when using the virtual reality setup. These include things like joysticks, body suits etc.

AUGMENTED REALITY

Again if we read the definition by Wikipedia of augmented reality it says that

‘’ Augmented reality is an interactive experience of a real-world environment where the objects that reside in the real-world are enhanced by computer-generated perceptual information, sometimes across multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory.’’

Now if this is again a bit typical for you then lets discuss it in a bit simple language so as we all know the word ‘augment’ means to add or superimpose or enhance something in augmented reality also various type of feedback such as graphic sound and touch are added to the natural environment in order to create a better version of the working environment.

If you are still confused then let me tell you about a program that you might surely remember. POKEMON GO yes!!! That is augmented reality in which it takes visual from the real world using the smartphone camera and then imposes a pokemon over it making sure that it blends with the environment and appears if the pokemon would really be there. Yes that is augmented reality. Now  I am sure it dosen’t need any further explanation.

The type of augmented reality you are most likely to encounter uses a range of sensors (including a camera), computer components and a display device to create the illusion of virtual objects in the real world.

COMPONENTS REQUIRED FOR AUGMENTED REALITY

Generally speaking thanks to the huge advancements in smartphones you can experience augmented reality just by your smartphone, just by using the apps built for them you can experience and understand what truly is augmented reality but you can’t understand what it can really do as most smartphones just don’t have enough processing power nor we have such developed apps for the particular field right now.

Now this is not the only way you can do this and experience augmented reality. The other way augmented reality can be experienced is by projecting the images directly onto the environment ex. Using holograms. In this way the user can experience augmented reality without the need of small screens or annoying glasses.

Now when we are talking about glasses how can we forget the big player google yes you guessed it right I am talking about google glasses. They are also a way you can experience augmented reality in day to day life.

Well if you are still confused about it and want another reference then let me tell you that you all already know it pretty well and have seen it many times. Still confused? Let me make it clear, have you seen the movie avengers? Well if you haven’t then you should. If you have seen it then you surely know the legend tony stark AKA iron man, he’s everyone’s favorite. Well you have surely seen him interacting with J.A.R.V.I.S or F.R.I.D.A.Y in the later versions, whenever he asks JARVIS or FRIDAY for any kind of information while wearing his suit a projection just pops up in front of him yes that is augmented reality too!!!!!!!

MIXED REALITY

According to wikipedia 

"Mixed reality, sometimes referred to as polyplexity, is the merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualizations where physical and digital objects co-exist and interact in real time."

Mixed reality is just mixed version of virtual reality and augmented reality. What virtual reality does is that it creates a separate new environment completely different from the one that is real and augmented reality imposes images over the real environment. What mixed reality does is that it takes the features of both VR and AR and combines them.

Therefore in MR you get the capabilities to interact with virtual content present in front of you (as in augmented reality) just like you can interact with the virtual content in VR. Therefore it is also sometimes known as an enhanced version of augmented reality and is sometimes referred as hybrid reality or extended reality (XR).

Although mixed reality is still in the growing phase even then it is being used in many fields as of today. Mixed reality comes along with immeasurable potential of changing how people work, interact and communicate with the real world.

As the technology matures and the accompanying devices get smaller, it is expected that various sectors and industries will adopt the use of mixed reality in their day to day operations.

So here ends the article about Virtual reality VS Augmented reality VS Mixed reality. If you have any queries feel free to contact us on the mail in the about us page or just send a message regarding your query on our Facebook page.


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