The Innovation Ultimatum

5Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality

What Are They and Why Are They Important?

Virtual, augmented, and mixed reality (VR, AR, and MR) offer exciting new ways for us to interact with digital information, services, and each other. In virtual reality, we can dive into digital worlds that transport us somewhere new. With augmented and mixed reality, we invite digital objects, information, and services to inhabit our physical spaces. These technologies build bridges between the physical and digital worlds and allow us to pass back and forth across these bridges at will. They offer us new ways to connect with digital content, and the ability to edit our own visual perception. At maturity, these technologies will have a profound impact on the world, perhaps outstripping that of the smartphone.

Understand the Reality Spectrum: Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed

Virtual, augmented, and mixed reality exist on a spectrum with physical reality on one end and virtual reality on the other. A VR headset immerses us in a 100% digital world. Users are isolated from the physical world and feel transported to another place. Augmented and mixed reality experiences sit in the middle of the spectrum, halfway between physical and virtual reality. In augmented reality, digital information and content is overlaid on top of a user's view of the physical world. Users remain connected to the physical world, which makes AR far more useful in real-world applications. Mixed reality—sometimes referred to as ...