what is Virtual Reality (VR):
A human may engage with a synthetic three-dimensional (3-D) visual or another sensory world via computer modeling and simulation, or virtual reality (VR). Virtual Reality is the latest technology that will be used to the advantage of mankind. Through the use of interactive, wearable devices that transmit and receive information and may take the shape of goggles, headsets, gloves, or body suits, VR applications immerse the user in a computer-generated world that resembles reality. In a typical VR format, a user looks at animated visuals of a virtual world while wearing a helmet with a stereoscopic screen. Motion sensors pick up the user's motions and modify the display on the screen appropriately, generally in real-time (the moment the user's movement takes place), giving the impression of "being there" (telepresence). As a result, a user may explore a simulated set of rooms while experiencing shifting views and viewpoints that plausibly correspond to his actual head movements and steps. The user may even pick up and handle items that he sees in the virtual world while wearing data gloves that are outfitted with force-feedback devices that provide the feeling of touch.
Jaron Lanier, whose research and engineering produced a variety of devices for the developing VR sector, invented the phrase "virtual reality" in 1987. The participation of the federal government, notably the Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, was a recurring theme in early VR research and technology development in the United States (NASA). Projects supported by these organizations and conducted at university-based research facilities produced many talented individuals in industries like computer graphics, simulation, and networked environments. They also created connections between the workforce's academic, military, and commercial sectors. This article discusses the history of this technical advancement and the social environment in which it occurred.
What is Augmented reality (AR):
The actual environment and computer-generated material are combined in augmented reality (AR), an interactive experience. The information may be presented in visual, audio, haptic, tactile, and olfactory forms. A system that combines the real and virtual worlds with real-time interaction and precise 3D registration of actual and virtual items is what is known as augmented reality (AR). The sensory information that is superimposed may be harmful or beneficial to the surroundings (i.e. masking the natural environment). This experience is so completely integrated with the actual world that it seems to be a realistic component of the setting. In contrast to virtual reality, which totally replaces the user's real-world environment with a simulated one, augmented reality modifies one's continuous perspective of a real-world environment.
Mixed reality and augmented reality are often used interchangeably. Additionally, the terms extended reality and computer-mediated reality are similar.
The main benefit of augmented reality is how elements of the digital world are integrated into how people experience the actual world, not only as a display of data but also via the incorporation of immersive experiences that are viewed as organic elements of a setting. The Virtual Fixtures system created by the U.S. Air Force's Armstrong Laboratory in 1992 was one of the first practical AR systems to provide users immersive mixed reality experiences in the early 1990s. Commercial augmented reality applications originally appeared in the gaming and entertainment industries. Applications for augmented reality have now expanded to include commercial sectors including education, communications, medical, and entertainment. When it comes to education, material may be accessible by utilizing either markerless AR methods or scanning or seeing a picture on a mobile device.
Natural settings or circumstances may be improved by augmented reality, which also provides perceptually richer experiences. Advanced AR technologies provide interactive and digitally modified information regarding the user's immediate environment, such as computer vision, AR cameras integrated into smartphone apps, and object identification. On top of the real world, information about the surroundings and their constituents is displayed. This data might be digital. Any artificial experience that augments the real world is referred to as augmented reality. or actual, such as when electromagnetic radio waves are seen overlay in perfect alignment with where they are in reality in space. The collection and exchange of tacit information is another area where augmented reality has a lot of promise. The majority of the time, real-time, semantic contexts with environmental factors are used for augmentation approaches. Over a live video stream of a sports game, immersive perceptual information is sometimes merged with supplementary information like scores. This combines the advantages of both heads-up displays and augmented reality technologies (HUD).
Comparison with virtual reality:
The users' impression of reality in virtual reality (VR) is entirely dependent on virtual data. In augmented reality (AR), the user is given extra computer-generated information that is integrated with data gathered from the actual world to improve their sense of reality. For instance, in architecture, VR and AR may be used to depict the structures and systems of a building superimposed over a real-world perspective and to generate a walk-through simulation of the inside of a new building. Utility applications are yet another example. Businesses may utilize augmented reality devices to showcase their goods in the real world thanks to certain AR programs, like Augment, which let users integrate digital things into actual situations. As shown by businesses like Mountain Equipment Co-op or Lowe's, who employ augmented reality to let consumers sample what their items may look like at home via the use of 3D models, it can also be used to display what things may look like in an environment for customers.
In contrast to virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) only adds layers of virtual items to the actual world. This is how AR and VR vary from one another. In contrast, the surroundings in virtual reality are entirely artificial and computer created. Augmented reality games provide an example of how items are layered onto the actual environment. With the use of geolocation technology, users of the augmented reality gaming app Wallace may conceal messages anywhere in the world. Users can do this by placing messages anywhere in the actual world. The world has various purposes for these apps, including advocacy and creative expression.
Technology:
Hardware
A CPU, display, sensors, and input devices are examples of hardware for augmented reality. These components, which often include a camera and MEMS sensors like an accelerometer, GPS, and solid-state compass, are included in contemporary mobile computing devices like smartphones and tablet PCs, making them excellent AR platforms. The technologies diffractive waveguides and reflective waveguides are both employed in augmented reality.
Display
The representation of augmented reality employs a variety of technologies, including optical projection systems, displays, portable devices, and display systems that are worn on the human body.
A head-mounted display (HMD) is a display gadget that is strapped to the forehead or put on a helmet. HMDs, overlay the user's field of vision with pictures of the real environment and virtual things. To match virtual information with the real environment and adapt to the user's head motions, modern HMDs often include sensors for six degrees of freedom tracking. HMDs can provide mobile and group experiences to VR users. For complete virtual immersion, certain suppliers, like uSens and Gestigon, provide gesture controllers.
Eyeglasses
Devices that resemble spectacles may render AR displays. Some technologies project AR images through or reflect them off the surfaces of the eyewear lens components, as well as eyewear that uses cameras to intercept real-world views and show their augmented versions via the eyepieces.
HUD
A transparent display known as a head-up display (HUD) allows users to see data without having to change their typical viewing angles. Heads-up displays, a forerunner of augmented reality, were created for pilots in the 1950s. They projected basic flying information into the pilots' line of sight, allowing them to keep their "heads up" and avoid looking down at the instruments. Since they can display data, information, and pictures while the user is looking at the actual environment, near-eye augmented reality devices may be utilized as portable head-up displays. Many descriptions of augmented reality just mention the information is superimposed. However, realistically speaking, augmented reality is intended to incorporate registration and tracking between the overlay perceptions, feelings, information, data, and pictures and some area of the actual environment. This is essentially what a head-up display accomplishes.
Contact lenses
The development of contact lenses with AR imaging is ongoing. These bionic contact lenses may include integrated electronics, LEDs, and a wireless communication antenna implanted in the lens along with other display-related components. Steve Mann obtained a patent for the first contact lens display in 1999. It was designed to operate with AR eyewear, but the idea was shelved until 10 or 11 years later, in 2010 or 2011. Another kind of contact lens that the U.S. military is developing will work with AR glasses and let troops simultaneously concentrate on near-to-the-eye AR visuals on the glasses and far-off real-world items.
A firm by the name of Innovega also presented comparable contact lenses at CES 2013 that needed to be worn in conjunction with AR glasses to function.
Sight, a future short film, includes augmented reality gadgets that resemble contact lenses.
Numerous scientists have been developing contact lenses that can do various technical marvels. A Samsung patent envisions an augmented reality contact lens that will eventually include a built-in camera on the lens. The interface is meant to be controlled by an eyeblink. To watch the video and independently operate it, it is also designed to be connected to the user's smartphone. If it worked, the lens would have a camera or sensor within. It has been suggested that it might be anything from a temperature sensor to a light sensor.
At CES 2020, Mojo Vision presented and demonstrated the first functioning prototype of an AR contact lens that does not need the usage of glasses in addition.
Virtual retinal display
Under the direction of Dr. Thomas A. Furness III, the University of Washington's Human Interface Technology Laboratory is working on a personal display device called a virtual retinal display (VRD). With the use of this technology, the retina of a viewer's eye is immediately scanned from a display. Images produced as a consequence are vivid, highly detailed, and highly contrasted. A typical display that seems to be floating in space is visible to the observer.
To evaluate the safety of the VRD, many experiments were conducted. In one experiment, people with keratoconus or macular degeneration—a condition that causes the retina to deteriorate—were chosen to see pictures using the technique. In the macular degeneration group, five out of eight individuals believed the VRD pictures were better and brighter and could see equivalent to or higher resolution levels than the cathode-ray tube (CRT) or paper images. In comparison to applying their own correction, all of the Keratoconus patients were able to resolve smaller lines in multiple-line tests while using the VRD. They discovered that the VRD pictures were crisper and simpler to see. Several experiments have shown that virtual retinal display is a safe technique.
Images produced via virtual retinal display may be viewed in natural daylight and interior lighting. Due to its combination of high resolution, high contrast, and high brightness, the VRD is seen as a preferable choice to use in a surgical display. Additional studies indicate that VRD has a very high potential for application as a display technology for patients with limited vision.
