Extended Reality is the Frontier of The Digital Future – Medium

Photo by XR Expo on Unsplash

Spatial computing technology is converging to create a unique and immersive digital future. Moving forward, how you interact with the physical world will not be the same as how you interact with the world. Like in Ready Player Ones Oasis, your digital experience will be limited only by your imagination.

This article explores the difference between the 3 types of spatial computing technologies and how they might impact the future.

Spatial computing refers to how humans and machines create and interact with one another in both real and digital spaces. As spatial computing technologies become more widespread, they are fundamentally altering how we live and interact with one another.

Today, we think of spatial computing as Extended Reality (XR). XR is a technological spectrum defined by how interactive you can be with both physical and virtual information. It covers a range of digital and physical realities and experiences. In a nutshell, extended reality encompasses the group of technologies that superimpose digital information onto the physical world and alters our perceptions. It changes how we perceive our physical reality.

Looking a little closer, there is nuance and variation between the types of XR technologies that are currently available. They do different things and serve different purposes. The main differences lie in their levels of immersion and depth of interactivity.

Augmented Reality (AR) is a seamless and interactive overlay of computer-generated images. AR technology changes how we perceive reality by including or excluding new features. Examples of foundational AR technology include smartphones with a combination of their camera and screen interface.

You can add digital features such as text, images, and interactive displays with the assistance of AR Apps on a smartphone. A person can take a photo or live shot of a room and overlay information on the screen such as room dimensions, artwork, or furniture. Instagram and Snapchat are great examples of AR in action.

But AR is relatively limited in its ability to provide an immersive reality experience. With AR you can project information but not interact directly with it. Think of it as a museum, AR is a look but dont touch technology.

Instagram and Snapchat filters are examples of AR technology that have become a staple of everyday life. Users alter their physical photos using customizable tools that can change their appearance by adding or subtracting different design elements.

IKEA Place is another great example of AR in action. It allows you to superimpose furniture into your home to view what it might look like.

Moving deeper into the immersive side of XR, there is a lot of confusion that occurs. That is, there is confusion about the difference between AR and MR. Mixed Reality, although similar to AR adds an additional element of complexity. With MR, computer-generated objects can interact with physical environments.

Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality are not interchangeable terms. The general distinction is: all MR is AR, but not all AR is MR. AR is a composite. MR is interactive. Source

While AR is characterized as an overlay of digital information, MR provides real-time digital information that can be interacted with. It creates a situation where digital and physical objects coexist. The combination of digital information within physical environments creates a unique hybrid experience with deeper nuance and complexity than AR.

The key distinction is that with MR, digital information can be interacted with in these physical environments. It provides a deeper level of immersion as compared to AR but less immersion than is possible with VR.

VR gives you a first-person perspective within a 3D reality. In some current applications, VR allows you to interact with the environment as if you were there. In the context of VR, virtual represents digital objects and environments that have similar qualities to the physical world. But the virtual objects are not physical, they are digital.

VR is on the furthest and most immersive end of the spatial computing spectrum. Like MR, you can interact with the digital representations but instead of hybrid reality, the use of this technology creates a distinctive digital reality.

See the original post:

Extended Reality is the Frontier of The Digital Future - Medium