- A characteristic of augmented reality is that it seamlessly integrates digital information into real-world environments, offering diverse applications from decision-making support to entertainment across various sectors.
- AR technology utilises hardware components like processors, sensors, and displays, with mobile devices serving as accessible platforms due to their onboard capabilities.
- Advancements in AR technology, including Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore, alongside developments in AR, VR, and mixed-reality headsets such as Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest 3, indicate a promising future with expanding possibilities for immersive experiences and practical applications.
Today, smartphone gaming, mixed-reality headsets, and heads-up displays (HUDs) in car windshields are prominent consumer AR products. However, AR technology extends across various sectors, including healthcare, public safety, gas and oil, tourism, and marketing. In the following section, we will further explore the characteristics of AR.
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What is a characteristic of augmented reality?
Augmented reality (AR) seamlessly integrates digital information into the user’s real-time environment. Unlike virtual reality (VR) which constructs wholly artificial settings, AR overlays generated perceptual data onto the real-world environment, providing users with an enriched experience.
AR serves diverse functions, from facilitating decision-making processes to entertainment, by either visually modifying natural surroundings or offering supplementary information. Its principal advantage lies in the fusion of digital and three-dimensional (3D) elements with users’ real-world perceptions.
Utilising devices such as smartphones, glasses, or headsets, AR delivers visual, auditory, and sensory cues to users. These overlays create an immersive experience, altering users’ perception by integrating digital content with their physical environment. The overlaid information can seamlessly blend into the surroundings or selectively obscure parts of the natural environment.
The term “augmented reality” was coined in 1990 by Thomas Caudell, an employee of Boeing Computer Services, Research, and Technology, to describe the functionality of head-mounted displays used by electricians assembling intricate wiring harnesses. One of the earliest commercial applications of AR was the introduction of the yellow first-down marker in televised football games in 1998.
How does augmented reality function?
Augmented reality can be experienced through various mediums such as smartphones, glasses, and headsets, with AR contact lenses also in the developmental stage. The technology necessitates hardware components like processors, sensors, displays, and input devices. Mobile devices like smartphones and tablets are equipped with these components, rendering AR more accessible to average users. They typically feature sensors like cameras, accelerometers, GPS, and compasses, enabling functionalities such as location tracking and orientation detection.
Advanced AR systems, as utilised by the military for training purposes, may incorporate machine vision, object recognition, and gesture recognition. Due to the computational demands of AR, processing tasks can be delegated to other devices if necessary.
Augmented reality applications operate via marker-based or markerless approaches. Marker-based AR involves associating digital information with specific markers in the real world, allowing devices to execute relevant actions and overlay corresponding images upon marker detection.
Markerless AR is more intricate, as it doesn’t rely on predefined markers. Instead, it utilises recognition algorithms to identify objects within the environment and overlay digital content accordingly, leveraging the device’s onboard sensors for this purpose.
Distinguish the characteristics of AR from VR
Virtual reality (VR) constructs a virtual environment through software, prompting users to perceive it as real. This immersive experience is mainly delivered through headsets offering sight and sound.
AR, on the other hand, augments the existing real-world environment by overlaying virtual information onto it. Unlike VR, which entirely immerses users in a virtual world, AR integrates virtual elements within the user’s real-world context.
The devices utilised also vary. VR employs headsets for immersive experiences, while AR encompasses a broader range of devices such as phones, glasses, projections, and HUDs.
In VR, users navigate and interact within a simulated 3D environment, whereas AR maintains users within their real-world surroundings while overlaying virtual data visually. For instance, while VR simulates environments, AR could project a web browser within a user’s living room. Spatial computing headsets like Apple Vision Pro or Meta Quest 3 utilise a technique called passthrough to provide a view of the real world through front-facing cameras.
The term “mixed reality,” often used interchangeably with AR, refers to the integration of virtual content into a real-world environment for user interaction. For example, Apple Vision Pro can project a virtual keyboard for typing. The key distinction between mixed reality and AR lies in the user’s ability to interact with the digital display.
The future of augmented reality technology
The advancement of AR technology is evident with the rising popularity of apps and games like Pokemon Go and AR retail store applications.
Apple is continuously enhancing its ARKit, an open-source toolkit for mobile augmented reality development. Major companies like Target and Ikea leverage ARKit in their flagship shopping apps for iOS devices, with ARKit 6 introducing features like high dynamic range 4K rendering and improved image and video capture. Additionally, ARKit 6 incorporates a Depth API, aiding camera understanding of object size and shape through per-pixel depth information and scene geometry mapping.
Google’s ARCore, a platform for building AR experiences on Android and iOS, continues to progress. It incorporates a geospatial API utilising Google Earth 3D models and Street View image data from Google Maps. Similar to ARKit’s Depth API, ARCore has enhanced its depth-sensing capabilities for longer-range perception.
Furthermore, advancements in AR, VR, and mixed-reality headsets are notable. Meta’s release of the slimmer, lighter, and more ergonomic Quest 3 in October 2023 exemplifies this progress.
In February 2024, Apple launched the Apple Vision Pro, adding to the competition in the AR and VR headset market. Targeted at early adopters and developers, Vision Pro comes with a higher price point compared to Meta’s Quest 3. Meta Platforms aims for a wider audience with a $499 price tag, while Apple prices the Vision Pro at around $3,499. It is anticipated that Apple will introduce a non-Pro variant at a more accessible price point in the future. Developers working on the Vision Pro will utilise the visionOS software development kit, while still leveraging familiar Apple tools like ARKit, SwiftUI, or RealityKit for app development.
