In the early 1930s, virtual reality was a debatable topic when science fiction writers, inventors, and tinkerers were trying to escape from the real world to the virtual environment through machines and technology. Today technology has been so modernized to recreate your imaginary world.

The line between the virtual and actual worlds continues to blur, allowing for magnificent experiences that were previously only possible in sci-fi writers’ imaginations. The words Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Mixed Reality (MR) are becoming increasingly prevalent. They’re hybrid technologies that combine virtual and real-world elements.

Virtual Reality:

To create a simulated environment’s experience which can be similar to the real world or close to reality through the usage of computer technology. The head-mounted display is the most instantly recognized component of Virtual Reality (HMD).

Humans are visual beings, and the display technology that separates immersive Virtual Reality systems from standard user interfaces is frequently the most significant distinction. Users are immersed and able to engage with 3D worlds rather than watching a screen in front of them.

The computer’s immersive technology is acting like a gatekeeper or a bridge between two different worlds i.e. artificial world or the real world by simulating as many senses as possible, including vision, hearing, touch, and even smell.

Technology behind Virtual Reality:

Virtual Reality Technology is the most famous technology around the world that is fully immersive. This technology deceives your senses into believing you’re in a different environment or world than the one you’re in.

You’ll be immersed in a computer-generated world of graphics and sounds, manipulating items and moving about with haptic controls while attached to a console or PC, utilizing a head-mounted display (HMD) or headset.

Applications of Virtual Reality:

Video Games, 3D Cinematic views, and Virtual worlds are the entertainment applications of virtual reality. On the other hand, in Social sciences, Military, Education, Medical Sciences, and Physical pieces of training this technology is progressing day by day.

Virtual reality headsets, for consumers, were originally introduced by video game firms in the early to mid-1990s. Oculus (Rift), HTC (Vive), and Sony (PlayStation VR) all introduced next-generation commercial tethered headsets in the 2010s, igniting a new wave of application development.

Sporting events, erotica, fine art, music videos, and short films have all utilized 3D cinema. Virtual reality is a cost-effective technology for studying and replicating interactions in a controlled social sciences and psychology setting. It has the potential to be employed as a therapeutic intervention.

Simulated VR surgical settings were initially created in medicine in the 1990s. VR can deliver effective and repeatable training at a cheap cost under the supervision of experts, allowing trainees to detect and correct errors as they occur.

VR is being used in education, with virtual reality in both teaching and learning contexts. Students can engage with one another and with the surroundings in three dimensions. They may also embark on virtual field excursions to museums, take tours of the solar system, and travel through time to other eras.

Floreo, a technology startup, has created virtual reality environments in which children may learn and practice skills including pointing, making eye contact, and forming social bonds. Parents may use an attached tablet to follow along and communicate with their children.

Virtual Reality is used by the military for a variety of purposes. Its immersive technology use in flying, warfare simulations, medic training, vehicle simulation, and virtual boot camp. It is employed by the army, navy, air force, marines, and coast guard.

VR appears to be an effective technique of instruction in a society where technology is accepted from an early age and youngsters are accustomed to video games and computers. For a variety of instructional reasons, VR can transfer a student into a variety of scenarios, locations, and surroundings. 

Virtual reality (VR) is a fully immersive, visual, and auditory experience that may be used to safely simulate dangerous training scenarios to prepare and train soldiers without putting them in harm’s way until they are ready for conflict.

Forms of Virtual Reality:

Virtual Reality is subcategorized into different forms and models based on the type of virtual reality. It includes Avatar image-based virtual reality, Projector-based virtual reality, Desktop-based virtual reality, head-mounted display (HMD), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR).

In Avatar image-based, People can interact with the virtual world using real-time video and avatars. You can be a part of the 3D world in form of a conventional avatar. In Projector Based Virtual Reality, virtual reality have several applications like robot navigation, construction modeling, and airplane simulation.

Displaying a 3D virtual environment on a conventional desktop monitor without the need for specialist VR positional tracking equipment is known as desktop-based virtual reality. Many recent first-person video games, for example, make use of numerous triggers, responsive characters, and other interactive technologies to give the player the feeling of being in a virtual environment.

The user is more thoroughly immersed in a virtual environment using a head-mounted display (HMD). A virtual reality headset generally consists of two tiny high-resolution OLED or LCDs, one for each eye. HMD enables stereoscopic graphics producing a 3D virtual environment, a binaural audio system, and real-time positional and rotational head tracking for six degrees of movement.

Augmented Reality:

Augmented reality (AR) is a sort of virtual reality technology in which the real-world surroundings are combined with digital material, created by computer software. The added software-generated pictures that accompany the virtual visual usually improve the appearance of the actual world in some way.

AR systems allow users to view a three-dimensional view of every object by layering virtual information over a live video feed via a headset, smart glasses, or through a mobile device.

Augmented reality is a type of technology, used to improve natural settings or circumstances by providing perceptually enhanced experiences. The information about the user’s surrounding actual environment becomes interactive and digitally modified with the use of modern AR technologies (e.g. integrating computer vision, putting AR cameras into smartphone applications, and object identification).

In addition to accumulating and sharing tacit information, augmented reality offers a lot of possibilities. Augmentation methods are often used in real-time with ambient factors in semantic settings. Over a live video stream of a sporting event, immersive perceptual information is occasionally integrated with extra information such as scores.

Applications of Augmented Reality:

The entertainment and gaming industries were the first to develop commercial augmented reality experiences. As a result, augmented reality applications have spread across a variety of economic sectors, including education, communications, medical, and entertainment.

Content can be accessible in education via scanning or seeing a picture on a mobile device.  It can also be done by employing marker-less AR methods. The Virtual Fixtures system, created by the United States Air Force’s Armstrong Laboratory in 1992, was one of the first practical AR systems to give users realistic mixed reality experiences.

Comparison with Virtual Reality (VR):

The users’ impression of reality in virtual reality (VR) is entirely dependent on virtual data. In augmented reality (AR), the user is given additional computer-generated information and visuals to help them perceive reality more clearly. In architecture, for example, Virtual Reality can be used to generate a walk-through simulation of the inside of a new building. On the other hand, Augmented Reality can be used to superimpose a building’s components and systems from a real-life perspective. The usage of utility programs is another example.

Virtual reality (VR) differs from augmented reality (AR) in that some of the surrounding worlds are real in AR, whereas VR only adds layers of virtual things to the real surroundings. In VR, on the other hand, the environment is fully virtual. Augmented reality games are a good example of how AR overlays items onto the actual environment.

3D Music Production:

The application of augmented reality in new ways of music creation, mixing, control, and visualization has been suggested. A tool for creating 3D music in clubs has been developed that, in addition to conventional sound mixing functions, allows the DJ to play hundreds of sound samples placed anywhere in 3D space. AR Mixer is an app that lets you choose and mix tunes by manipulating items like a bottle or can’s position.

Interlinked with Snapchat:

Snapchat users may apply camera filters to access augmented reality in the company’s instant messaging service. Snapchat upgraded its app in September 2017 to include a camera filter that allows users to create an animated, cartoon version of themselves known as “Bitmoji.”These animated avatars would be presented in real-time through a camera and maybe photographed or video captured.

Dangers of AR:

AR gadgets function by recording a real-world scene, evaluating it, and then superimposing additional visual information on top of it, or ‘augmenting’ reality. As a result, data collection is an important aspect of AR operation.

AR gadgets collect data on both the users and the individuals who are being watched through the devices. In terms of individual privacy, there is the ease of access to information about a person that should not be easily available.

Face recognition technology is used to do this. Assuming that AR conveys information about people the user sees, this information may include everything from social media to criminal records to marital status.

AR, like any other linked technology, is subject to hacker assaults and viruses, which can lead to security issues and illegal access. These attacks can cause a denial of service or incorrect information to be overlaid, resulting in serious, perhaps catastrophic effects.

For example, a hacker may utilize an AR-powered navigation system to misdirect a car and cause an accident. While businesses should be enthusiastic about the idea of employing augmented reality for a variety of applications, they should not dismiss the threats that AR poses in the real world.

Mixed Reality:

The blend of the real and virtual worlds to create new habitats and representations where actual and digital items co-exist and interact in real-time is known as mixed reality (MR). You may play a virtual video game, take your real-world water bottle, and hit an imagined character from the game with the bottle using Mixed Reality (MR).

Never before have imagination and reality been so intertwined. Without ever removing your headset, you can view and immerse yourself in the world around you while interacting with a virtual environment with your own hands.

It allows you to have one foot (or hand) in the actual world and the other in an imaginary one, breaking down basic conceptions such as real and imagined and providing an experience that might transform the way you play and work today.

Applications of Mixed Reality:

Mixed reality has a wide range of uses, including design, entertainment, military training, and remote working. Different display technologies are being employed to enable user engagement with mixed reality applications.

Military training systems are frequently based on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology like Virtual Battlespace 3 and VirTra, which are both utilized by the US Army. Both civilian and military law enforcement agencies are using VirTra to train people in a range of circumstances, including active shooter, domestic violence, and military traffic stops, as of 2018.

The Virtual Fixtures platform, created by Louis Rosenberg of the United States Air Force’s Armstrong Laboratories in 1992, was the first completely immersive mixed reality system. It allowed humans to manage robots in real-world surroundings with genuine physical items and 3D virtual overlays (“fixtures”) that helped humans do manipulation tasks better.

The geometry of three-dimensional objects may be viewed using MR technology. Users can also use motions and voice instructions to interact with the virtual model.

Mixed Reality can assist students or designers in not just seeing 3-D geometry to grasp the design of digital models. It also in understanding product functionalities, geometric relationships, and fostering their creativity.

VR and AR-based training, as well as interactive, experiential learning, are examples of simulation-based learning. Mixed Reality has a wide range of applications in both educational and professional training contexts. AR has been utilized in education to mimic historical conflicts, offering pupils an unrivaled immersive experience and perhaps better learning opportunities.