Augmented reality and virtual reality redefining our existence

Our existence in the virtual world has become quite the opposite of our existence in the physical world. Two of the leading technologies taking a tremendous lead in today’s world is augmented reality and virtual reality. Not so long ago, the concepts were present only in the movies, however, it has now come into existence for real. In fact, they are redefining the meaning of existence for us. So far, it has shown startling results as it takes people’s imagination and changes it into a completely diverse imagination. One moment it is like traveling to a different world and, in the very next, it is like walking into someone’s mind.

Augmented reality (AR) displays digital components to the live view of your camera on the smartphone screen. It enhances the user’s experiences in the real world, by adding computer-generated simulations. The best example of augmented reality is the game PokemonGo, which has remarkably given one of the rich user experiences. Finding the Pokemon characters hidden in your own surroundings took players into a world that looked more realistic, solely with a virtual representation.

Photo: Unsplash/ David Grandmougin

Virtual reality (VR), on the other hand, shuts the physical world completely and takes you inside a computer generated three-dimensional world. With this, staying still on a location, you get to wander to a complete different world. There are VR devices available such as Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard. They transport you into a real-world and imagined environments such as in the circus right next to a tamed lion or even among the dinosaurs.

History of AR/VR

Who might have even thought about bringing such technologies into existence 70 years ago?

Photo: Medium/ @ARchy

The first device linked with virtual reality was the stereoscope created by Charles Wheatstone in 1838. This technology used an image for each eye to create a 3-D image for the viewer. Then, an American filmmaker and inventor Morgan Heilig developed the first ever virtual simulator ‘The Sensorama’ in 1957. The device included a 3-D display of stereoscope, fans to imitate wind, odor and a motion chair for real and virtual experience at once.

In the case of AR, in 1901, author L Frank Baum first mentioned the idea in his novel (The Master Key). The idea was of an electronic display/spectacles that could overlay data onto real life. He named it as ‘character marker’. And in 1968, Ivan Sutherland and his student Bob Sproull invented a head-mounted display, an AR-VR device, called ‘The Sword of Damocles’.

This is where the basics of contemporary VR devices, we see today, began. As the first AR experiences was provided largely by the entertainment and gaming companies. In the ’90s, gamers could not simply ignore the AR-VR technology.

How is augmented reality different from virtual reality?

Augmented reality and virtual reality somehow are related but the two differs in their tasks. They can be considered as cousins. People use the two terms in a same conversation and this creates confusion of their working principles. But the difference is major and worth explaining.

With virtual reality, you can experience feeding the pandas in the bamboo jungles of China. And with augmented reality, you can watch a panda walking freely in your room. A VR headset over your eyes does leave you blind to the current world but, at the same time, will also expand your senses with the experiences within. You might even find yourself on top of the Mt Everest while you are still seated at your favorite ice cream parlor.

With some VR experiences, the immersion can be quite dramatic. Several users have shared their feelings of movement as they climbed a rock or rode a roller-coaster within the virtual environment. But with AR, it simply “augments” your current state of presence, often with clear visors. So simply, it takes our current reality and adds something digitally to it.

AR consolidates the real world with the virtual world. You are still in your classroom and there’s Pikachu dancing right at your desk. Compared to that, VR completely isolates you from the outer world and takes you to a whole different world that gives you perspectives in third dimensions or higher.

Something in common

Though different, there is one thing common between the two. They serve the user with superior, enriched experiences. We are currently in a paradigm shift. People are relying more upon the technologies, with augmented reality and virtual reality on the lead. Businesses and companies are actually showing their interests to expand the market and invest in products that have good prospects of using such technologies.

Photo: Pexels/ Malcom Garret

The medical field has made the best use of AR and VR so far. It has improved the quality and experience of examining internal organs, how to perform remote surgeries. Doctors have benefited by visualizing things that can’t be seen so easily. Such technologies shed light to many challenges and offer feasible solutions to them. Implementations of AR and VR in medical science is well-thought of and will be a complete game-changer.

They both provide impressive results to alter our perceptions of the world. Remember the time when we learned that watching TV gave you the vision of what the world looked like. It took you to different places while still in front of the box. It is quite similar, but with AR and VR it just doesn’t take you to the place but it also makes you feel your existence at the very moment.

Hence, the existence of augmented reality and virtual reality technologies has remarkable effects on society these days. Viewing the virtual and augmented worlds has become like a dream come true for people who long to be on a roller coaster ride on their wheelchair or to view the Great Wall of China across the seven seas just through a screen. We can see how both the technologies have acquired media attention on a substantial amount with potential to market growth.