Navigating the landscape of Extended Reality - XR

AR / VR / MR / XR

Playing with acronyms has been a popular trend these days. Hence new and fast growing technologies have slowly developed an addiction towards acronyms as well. In this realm of trends and practices, Virtual Reality (VR) as well as Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR) and Extended Reality (XR) are no exceptions. Though these technologies are designed to perform different things altogether, but there is always a thin line of difference which makes this ride more thrilling and lot of fun. While dealing with much larger domains like 3-D objects and AI, let’s dig into the concepts and purposes lying under these terms. 

Virtual Reality (VR)

Let’s travel down the memory lane, remember Star Trek? One rollercoaster ride involving computer stimulated reality and robots. That was our first experience involving a digital transformation and overlays on the real world that users can interact with. Crash-landed back in the 60’s we never had that technology and all we could do was to just dream about it. Now we have it as a computer-stimulated environment that almost replicates a physical presence in the real world. A true VR will engage all five senses – taste, sight, smell, touch and sound.

Today, we can proudly say that VR is a most-awaited new electricity in the field of technology after Deep Learning AI. After years of popularity in the gaming industry, we are now leveraging  this technology into more practical business applications as well. The world is more excited about this new trend and further progress and research work is expected in the near future.

Augmented Reality (AR)

"Once it arrives, Augmented Reality will be everywhere"

This old saying has now reached it’s unfathomable zenith. Augmented Reality (AR) is now live and whole world is witnessing one massive transformation. It is nothing but a direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose attributes and contents are supplemented by computer-generated sensor level input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. It uses one’s existing reality and adds more to it by utilizing a device, mobiles and tablets being the most user-friendly and popular medium. Recent examples being Pokemon Go and many more.

In short, it means seeing all types of content (2D, 3D or 4D) and data (ambient temperature, emails, directions, etc.) thereby enhancing user experience.

AR is believed to have achieved a humongous potential for mass usage resulting into a cutting-edge commodity that can be delivered on our daily used hardwares like smartphone.

Mixed Reality (MR)

“hey, isn't all of this technically 'reality' that has been 'augmented' with computer graphics?" 

Answer is YES!

Mixed Reality (MR) removes the boundaries between real and virtual world via “occlusion”. “Occlusion” got coined by the computer-generated objects can be visibly obscured by objects in the physical environment—like a virtual robot scurrying under your coffee table, turning it into a hybrid reality. Here Digital content gets blended into real-world environment.

It is nothing but merging of two mutually exclusive environments present in real and virtual world respectively to produce new positions and inertias where physical and digital objects co-exist and interact with each other.

Extended Reality (XR)

Take AR, VR and MR in one pack and we get XR. Extended Reality (XR) refers to all real-and-virtual combined environments and human-machine interactions generated by computer technology and wearables. Extended Reality includes all it’s forms like the Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Mixed Reality (MR).

XR can be defined as an umbrella, which brings all three Reality (AR, VR, MR) together under one roof.

Future of XR

As we approach towards future, we will face issues of access, vulnerability and quality of immersive content as we attempt to use XR in real life. XR will be designed into our eyewear, desktops, laptops, smartphones, and tablets to connect present with both past and future. Technology will no longer be embedded in external devices but will instead become a platform for a new visual language of enriched experiences. We will meet, work and learn together in virtual and mixed reality environments, eradicating our traditional notions of space and time.

We are entering a new era—a "metaverse"—where experiences are available as per user demands—a world where the lines of the physical and digital are blurred. These developments will not happen overnight, but they will eventually take us into a new realm. We are at the dawn of an amazing journey that will profoundly transform the learning environment, our institutions, and the human experience itself.

The future ahead maybe dark but we have to embrace it and decide how we would want to use these technologies. Whether to pave the way to mass destruction or lead the way for human progress. We can both be two different projections at the same time – we could be the supreme mentor next to GOD or we could be the DUDE OF DESTRUCTION next to LUCIFER. If neither, then we would land into a supernova with nothing but humor born out of depression.