Overview

Virtual Reality (VR) takes you to a different world (The Matrix). Augmented Reality (AR) brings the digital world to this one. It paints pixels over your eyes. It is the Terminator HUD (Heads-Up Display). It is likely the future of the smartphone—not a screen in your hand, but glasses on your face.

Core Idea

The core idea is The Overlay. Mixing the real and the virtual seamlessly. The computer has to understand the 3D geometry of the room (SLAM - Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) to lock the digital object to the table.

Formal Definition

An interactive experience where real-world objects are enhanced by computer-generated perceptual information. AR vs. VR:

  • VR: Replaces reality (Oculus).
  • AR: Adds to reality (Pokemon Go).
  • MR (Mixed Reality): Virtual objects interact with real objects (a virtual ball bounces off a real table).

Intuition

  • Map: Looking down at your phone to see where to go.
  • AR: Looking at the street, and seeing giant blue arrows floating in the air telling you “Turn Left.”

Examples

  • Pokemon Go: The game that introduced AR to the masses. You look through your camera, and a Pikachu is standing on the sidewalk.
  • IKEA Place: An app that lets you “place” a virtual sofa in your living room to see if it fits and matches the curtains before you buy it.
  • Surgery: Surgeons wearing AR glasses that overlay the MRI scan onto the patient’s body, so they can see “through” the skin to the tumor.

Common Misconceptions

  • It’s just for games: It is a huge productivity tool. Mechanics use it to see repair manuals floating next to the engine.
  • Google Glass failed: It failed as a consumer product (too creepy), but it succeeded in factories (Enterprise Edition).
  • Spatial Computing: The broader term for computers that understand 3D space.
  • Haptics: Adding touch. Wearing gloves that let you “feel” the virtual object.

Applications

  • Translation: Google Lens. You point your camera at a menu in Japanese, and it replaces the text with English in the same font. Magic.

Criticism / Limitations

  • Field of View: Current glasses (HoloLens, Magic Leap) have a small window. It’s like looking through a mail slot.
  • Social Acceptance: “Glassholes.” People don’t like being recorded by cameras on your face.

Further Reading

  • Kipper, Gregory. Augmented Reality: An Emerging Technologies Guide to AR.
  • Vinge, Vernor. Rainbows End. (Sci-fi novel that predicts the AR future perfectly).