Augmented Reality Vs Virtual Reality: The Difference

Augmented reality and Virtual reality, also known as AR and VR, are reality techs that will either improve or replace a real-life environment with a simulated one. However, we will discuss the similarities or differences/relationships between Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality.

Augmented reality simply augments your surroundings by introducing digital elements to a live view, mostly by making use of a phone camera, while Virtual reality is a more immersive experience that transforms a real-life environment into a simulated one.

As far as AR is concerned, a virtual environment coexists with the real environment, and the aim is to provide more data about the real world that users will be able to access without searching for anything. For instance, industrial AR applications can guarantee immediate troubleshooting info when you point a smartphone to a piece of faulty equipment.

In VR, however, you’ll get a total environmental simulation that replaces the user’s world with a different world that is entirely virtual. However, since these virtual settings are nothing but make-believe, they are mostly designed to be different from reality like you are used to. For instance, Virtual reality can aid you to fight with a cartoon version of Anthony Joshua in a virtual boxing ring.

Even if both Virtual reality and Augmented reality are designed to deliver a simulated environment to the user, every concept is special and will involve various use cases. Alongside the entertainment, it guarantees, Augmented reality is currently used by companies too because it can help with generating informational overlays that add vital, real-world scenarios. Let’s break down how both reality technologies work, and how they can change the world.

Augmented Reality Vs Virtual Reality: The Difference

Difference Between AR And VR?

Even if the 2 technologies involve simulated reality, AR and VR depend on several underlying components and they serve different audiences.

For Virtual reality, the user gets to rock an eye-covering headset and headphones to move away from the real world and step into a virtual one. VR simply helps to get rid of the real world, and as soon as users get immersed into their new world, the VR universe can be instigated to make various kinds of provisions, including a lightsaber battle with Darth Vader and realistic recreation of earth.

The fact is that even if VR has some business apps users can work with, the majority of the VR apps are centered around entertainment.

As for Augmented reality, it basically integrates the simulated world with the real one. In most apps, the user depends on a mobile phone or tab screen to make this happen, pointing the device’s camera at whatever picks his/her interest to generate a live-streaming clip of the scene on the display.

The display will then show vital information, including implementations like repair details, navigation tips, or diagnostic data.

However, Augmented reality is also useful in entertainment apps. The smartphone game, Pokemon Go, which involves gamers trying to capture virtual creatures while moving around in the real world is a brilliant example.

Examples Of Augmented Reality And Virtual Reality:

Augmented reality is blessed with several use cases, and below are some brilliant apps you can actually work with today:

1. Ikea Place:

This is a mobile application that lets you picture Ikea furniture in your house by overlaying a 3D representation of the piece atop a live video stream of your building.

2. YouCam Makeup:

This one simply allows users to use real-life cosmetics through a living selfie.

3. Repair Technicians:

If you are into this, you simply use a headset that walks you through the steps of fixing or maintaining faulty equipment, drawing out precisely where every part goes and the order to follow.

4. Sports Lovers:

They can depend on augmented reality to offer real-time stats and enhance physical training for athletes.

5. Architects:

They use VR to design homes and allow clients to walk before foundations are laid.

Augmented Reality Vs Virtual Reality: The Difference

When Were Virtual Reality And Augmented Reality First Launched?

Even if early virtual reality systems were rampant in the 1950s and 1960s, the concepts of VR and AR started gaining momentum in military apps during the early 1980s. Motion pictures like Tron, The Matrix, and Minority Report even provided insights on how these technologies would grow to become a force to reckon with.

A VR headset, Sega VR almost had its first mainstream launch in 1993, and even if the release never happened, consumers became more aware of this tech trend. Eventually, in 2010, the world witnessed the launch of the Oculus Rift, and VR never looked back.

8 years ago, Google launched Google Glass to equip users with a head-mounted display AR device. This headset was controlled through voice and touch gestures, but most people were skeptical about it amid privacy concerns in addition to people already recording clips 24/7 in public. The project was scrapped in the end and re-unveiled years later.

How Exactly Does Augmented Reality Work On Mobile?

If you come across an AR app right now, it will most likely be in the form of a smartphone application. The fact is that all smartphone users have unrestricted access to lots of AR applications on iOS or Android devices without needing more hardware. In fact, the main software capabilities required to activate AR are already built into the operating system.

In a regular use case, the AR user will simply launch an app on his or her smartphone or tab. A lot of these AR apps come with an uncomplicated design, and users just need to point their phones at any subject of interest for the app to fill the screen with additional information.

Checkout Video Content; AR vs VR | What are Virtual and Augmented Realities?

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