Augmented Reality (AR)

What is Augmented Reality?

(AR)

Augmented reality is the overlaying of digitally-created content on top of the real world. Augmented reality - or 'AR' - allows the user to interact with both the real world and digital elements or augmentations.

How does Augmented Reality?

AR can be offered to users via headsets like Microsoft’s HoloLens, or through the video camera of a smartphone, making it highly accessible to diverse user groups. Beyond simple overlays, sophisticated AR implementations can selectively modify perception, such as simulating visual impairments for medical training or gradually transforming environments for interactive storytelling.

The technology exists along a spectrum that occasionally blurs with Virtual Reality, particularly in implementations where digital content increasingly dominates the visual field. AR's accessibility advantage stems from not requiring complete visual isolation, allowing users to maintain environmental awareness while interacting with digital content.

How is Augmented Reality used?

This characteristic has driven widespread adoption across sectors including retail, where virtual product previews enhance shopping experiences; manufacturing, where assembly guidance overlays improve efficiency; healthcare, for visualization of anatomical structures during procedures; and education, where complex concepts become tangible through spatial visualization.

Development platforms now provide comprehensive toolkits for spatial mapping, light estimation, and occlusion handling that enable increasingly convincing integration between physical and digital elements.