The difference between augmented and virtual reality – Pacific Daily News

Rhys Yu, For Pacific Daily News 4:29 p.m. ChT June 5, 2017

Tech Life(Photo: Cid Caser/PDN)

What is the difference between virtual reality and augmented reality?The two are in the news a lot these days.Some of the largest companies in the world are creating products and services around these fascinating technologies.

Simply defined, augmented reality (AR) places digital images on top of the real world. An example would be Snapchat.Take a picture of yourself, or of friends, and place a digital hat or mustache on them.With virtual reality, you and friends step into an artificial world where everything around you is created.An example would be the headsets by Facebook (Oculus) and Microsoft (HoloLens).Put the headsets on and everything you see is a created environment.

The history of augmented reality is interesting.A Boeing researcher, Thomas Caudell, created the term in 1990 when he was assigned to replace the expensive process used to assist factory workers.At the time, paper schematics were placed on large plywood boards that contained the designs of the wiring for each airplane.When the wiring changed, each schematic was manually reprinted and placed on the plywood board. Caudell and his colleague, David Mizaell, simplified that process by creating a headset devise that would project the wiring schematics for the planes on a blank wall. Each wiring schematic was stored in the device and could easily be altered through a computer system and sent to each worker without having to reprint and manually repost every new design.

Football fans see an example of augmented reality every week on television.The first down line, first appearing in 1998, was one of the first commercial uses of this technology. Googles Glass, car windshields heads-up displays and the popular game Pokemon Goare just a few of the many examples of augmented reality.

Virtual reality (VR), on the other hand, is a computer technology that uses headsets to create images and environments around the person wearing the device. The device generates sounds, imagesand other sensations to replicate or to create a specific environment, or to recreate a real one.A virtual reality environment is usually three dimensional, using the software to move and adjust to the person wearing the headset device. When the person walks, the environment changes to match the motions and changed environment around the person. When the person looks around, the environment changes to match the landscape to what the person is looking.

The headset device sends sounds to the user through speakers to mimic the sounds of the virtual world. Other realistic sensations used in the headset device include advanced haptic systems that replicate motion or tactile feedback.These are used in medical or video gaming and military training that transmit vibrations through a type of game controller.

Rhys Yu is The Software Guy at iConnect.He has more than 10 years of computer programming experience in Guam and the Philippines.

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The difference between augmented and virtual reality - Pacific Daily News