What is VR, AR, & MR?

Virtual Reality (VR)

Virtual Reality is a technology that creates a simulated environment, allowing users to immerse themselves in a three-dimensional, interactive world. This is typically achieved through the use of VR headsets, which cover the eyes and often include headphones to provide a fully immersive audio-visual experience. VR environments can simulate real-world locations or entirely fictional worlds, providing experiences that range from educational and professional training to entertainment and gaming.

Examples of VR

1. Video

National Geographic VR: Offers virtual tours of exotic locations and nature documentaries, allowing users to experience wildlife and remote locations up close.

IMVE: Offers immersive tours, music videos, concert, and podcast.

2. Gaming

Beat Saber: A popular VR rhythm game where players slash blocks representing musical beats with light sabers, matching the beat of the music.

Half-Life: Alyx: A VR game set in the Half-Life universe, offering an immersive first-person shooter experience with detailed environments and interactive puzzles.

3. Education and Training

Google Expeditions: An educational app that allows students to take virtual field trips to places like museums, outer space, and historical landmarks, enhancing learning through immersive experiences.

zSpace: Provides VR content for subjects such as biology, chemistry, and physics, enabling students to interact with 3D models and conduct virtual experiments.

4. Healthcare

VR Surgery Simulations: Applications like Osso VR provide surgeons with realistic simulations of surgical procedures, allowing them to practice and refine their skills in a safe, virtual environment.

Pain Management: VR experiences like SnowWorld are used to help manage pain for burn victims by immersing them in a calming, icy environment during painful procedures.

5. Real Estate

Matterport: A VR platform that allows real estate agents to create 3D virtual tours of properties, enabling potential buyers to explore homes remotely.

VR Global: Provides virtual tours and VR experiences for luxury real estate properties, offering immersive views of properties from anywhere in the world.

6. Tourism and Travel:

Google Earth VR: Allows users to explore the world in VR, including cities, landscapes, and famous landmarks, providing an immersive travel experience.

VR (Virtual Reality) Devices:

  1. HTC Vive Pro
  2. PlayStation VR
  3. Meta Quest
  4. Pico 4
  5. Bigscreen VR

Augmented Reality (AR)

Augmented Reality is a technology that overlays digital information and virtual objects onto the real world, enhancing the user’s perception of their environment. Unlike Virtual Reality, which creates an entirely immersive virtual experience, AR blends digital content with the physical world. This is typically achieved through devices like smartphones, tablets, or AR glasses, which use cameras and sensors to detect and interpret the real-world environment and overlay digital elements accordingly.

Examples of AR:

1. Gaming

Pokémon GO: An AR mobile game that overlays Pokémon characters onto real-world locations, allowing players to catch, train, and battle Pokémon in their actual surroundings.

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite: Another AR game that lets players explore the real world to discover magical artifacts, creatures, and characters from the Harry Potter universe.

2. Retail

IKEA Place: An AR app that allows users to place virtual furniture in their real homes to see how it would look and fit before making a purchase.

Sephora Virtual Artist: An AR app that enables users to try on makeup virtually, helping them choose the right products by seeing how different shades and styles look on their face.

3. Education

Anatomy 4D: An educational AR app that allows students to explore and interact with 3D models of the human body, enhancing their understanding of anatomy and physiology.

Google Lens: A tool that uses AR to provide information about objects in the real world, such as translating text, identifying plants and animals, and offering educational insights.

4. Navigation

Google Maps Live View: An AR feature in Google Maps that overlays directions and points of interest onto the real world, making it easier for users to navigate unfamiliar areas.

AR City: An AR app that provides real-time navigation assistance by overlaying arrows and directions onto the user’s view of the street.

5. Healthcare

AR Surgery: AR applications that assist surgeons by overlaying digital images and information onto the surgical field, improving precision and outcomes.

AccuVein: An AR device that helps healthcare professionals locate veins for intravenous injections by projecting a map of the veins onto the patient’s skin.

AR (Augmented Reality) Devices:

  1. Google Glass
  2. Microsoft HoloLens
  3. Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses
  4. Epson Moverio
  5. Magic Leap AR
  6. Xreal Air

Mixed Reality (MR)

Mixed Reality (MR) is a technology that blends the physical and digital worlds, allowing real and virtual elements to interact in real-time. Unlike Augmented Reality (AR), which overlays digital content on the real world, and Virtual Reality (VR), which creates a completely immersive digital environment, MR combines aspects of both to create interactive experiences where virtual objects are aware of and can respond to the physical environment. This is typically achieved using advanced sensors, optics, and computing power in devices like MR headsets.

Examples of MR:

1. Education

HoloAnatomy: An educational tool that provides medical students with interactive 3D models of the human body, allowing them to study anatomy in a more immersive and engaging way.

2. Gaming

Fragment: An MR game for HoloLens where players defend their real-world environment from virtual alien invasions. The game blends the digital invaders with the physical space, creating a more immersive experience.

RoboRaid: Another HoloLens game where players defend their space from invading robots that appear to break through the walls of their actual room, combining physical and virtual interactions.

3. Workplace and Collaboration

Spatial: An MR collaboration platform that allows users to create virtual meeting spaces where they can interact with 3D models, documents, and each other as holograms. This enhances remote teamwork by making it feel more like being in the same room.

Plexus: An MR tool for data visualization and manipulation, allowing professionals to interact with complex datasets in a 3D space, improving insights and decision-making.

4. Healthcare:

Surgical Training: MR is used for surgical training by overlaying digital models of anatomy onto physical mannequins, providing a more realistic and interactive training experience for medical students and professionals.

Mixed Reality Ultrasound: Using HoloLens, doctors can view ultrasound scans overlaid on the patient’s body, allowing for more precise and informed diagnostic procedures.

MR (Mixed Reality) Devices:

  1. Microsoft HoloLens 2
  2. Varjo XR-3
  3. HP Reverb G2 Omnicept Edition
  4. Apple Vision Pro
  5. Play For Dream MR