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What is Augmented Reality (AR)
Augmented reality (AR) is an immersive digital experience that combines the user’s real world environment with an artificial digital overlay, such as graphical displays, images, audio, and text. Augmented reality is thus defined by augmenting the user’s real world environment with extra digital assets.
For example, a user could walk outside with AR glasses or an AR/VR headset and view a 3D environment depicting both their local surroundings plus synthetic content that isn’t real.
Types of AR devices include smartphones, smart glasses, and AR headsets, which feature cameras, sensors, and visual displays that provide a depiction of the real world blended alongside the virtual world.
Key Takeaways
- Augmented reality (AR) is an immersive digital experience that combines the user’s real world environment with artificial digital elements.
- AR devices include smartphones, smart glasses, and AR headsets.
- Notable examples of Pokemon Go and Stranger Things.
- Researchers expect the augmented reality market will reach $432.35 billion by 2031.
- Potential use cases include 3D items, virtual tours, advertising, and gaming.
How Augmented Reality Works
Now that we’ve explained AR, let’s look at how it works. Augmented reality in its most limited sense is an app that blends your real world environment with virtual assets, so that you can see the environment that’s literally in front of you, with some augmented digital assets added in for good measure.
For example, in Apple Vision Pro, users can see their house or local environment through a passthrough and then see content that’s not actually there, like films being displayed on walls or other segments of the example.
Another example is if a user opens up an iOS shopping app for iPhone showing their room and has an AR display showing furniture in their room that’s not really there. This is just one in an ocean of AR applications emerging.
Types of Augmented Reality
There are multiple different types of augmented reality.
Some of these are as follows:
AR vs. VR & Mixed Reality
While augmented reality shares lots of similarities with virtual reality and mixed reality technologies, they are distinct concepts.
| Feature | Augmented reality | Virtual reality | Mixed reality |
|---|---|---|---|
| Definition | A digital experience that blends the user’s real world environment with an artificial overlay. | A virtual environment that presents an alternative reality that doesn’t exist. | Blends the real world and a digital environment together. |
| How it works | AR adds a digital overlay to your current real world surroundings.
Users can view objects and environments with text and image overlays. |
VR obscures the physical world to provide an entirely new digital experience.
With a VR headset, a user can transport themselves to a new world that is completely alien to their everyday surroundings. |
Mixed reality blends the user’s local environment with a digital world that they can interact with as if it were real.
This approach is typically more immersive than an augmented reality experience. |
| Examples | Pokemon Go, Netflix Stranger Things experience | Resident Evil 4 VR | Pokemon Go |
Augmented Reality Examples
One of the biggest examples of AR technology in action is Pokemon Go. In Pokemon Go, users can explore real world environments, trying to find them where they’re hidden. However, it’s worth noting that AR experiences aren’t just limited to apps.
Another notable example is when Netflix used AR experiences to promote its Stranger Things television series. The experience could be triggered from inside Walmart stores and turned shopping aisles into caves and forest environments, and even meeting the infamous Demogorgon.
Augmented Reality Use Cases
The potential use cases for augmented reality are extremely varied.
Some of the most notable use cases include:
Future of Augmented Reality
As a technology, augmented reality is in its infancy, but researchers expect it to grow significantly. Skyquest valued the augmented reality market at $42.85 billion in 2023 and anticipates it will reach $577.19 billion by 2032 as demand increases in the retail and e-commerce sectors.
With AR and virtual reality (VR) growing more popular and accessible, we can expect to see more retailers and e-commerce providers offering immersive digital experiences to customers to try and promote their products as these solutions make their way into users’ homes, workspaces, and recreational spaces.
Augmented reality will also likely see significant improvement as AI technologies, like generative AI (genAI) and image generation, continue to become more advanced. AI will play a key role in populating virtual spaces in ways that we haven’t seen fully come to life before.
AR Pros and Cons
Using augmented reality comes with a number of different pros and cons.
These are as follows:
Pros
- AR experiences provide a touchpoint to interact with audiences that is highly immersive and entertaining
- Developers can create new worlds and digital experiences that haven’t been seen before
- Users can view products, synthetic environments, and remote real world settings as if they were directly in front of them
Cons
- Not every device effectively supports AR experiences
- Using AR requires the use of 3D files and software that not everyone is familiar with
- Can collect detailed environmental data, raising risks of personal information exposure in case of a breach
- AR experiences may vary due to the differences in hardware, which may result in poor performance on incompatible devices
The Bottom Line
With the definition of augmented reality out of the way, the big question is what impact it’s going to have on society in the future.
While devices like the Apple Vision Pro have failed to take off, interest in devices like the Oculus Rift and Meta Quest shows that there is significant interest in immersive digital experiences, and we’re likely to see more providers aiming to offer this in the future.
