15/08/2023, 10:01 What really is the difference between AR / MR / VR / XR ?

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What really is the difference between AR / MR

/ VR / XR ?
North of 41 · Follow
4 min read · Mar 20, 2018

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Nowadays, new and emerging technology has nurtured an attachment to acronyms,

and virtual reality (VR) as well as augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR) and
extended reality (XR) are not exceptions. The purpose of what follows will be to
clarify what is really behind each of these acronyms. It is important to note that
these new technologies come from different places and they seek to do different
things. Still, they can use some similar technologies. For example, 3D objects and AI
are important to all of them. So let’s look at the concepts and definitions hiding
under these words.

Virtual Reality (VR)

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15/08/2023, 10:01 What really is the difference between AR / MR / VR / XR ? | by North of 41 | Medium

Virtual Reality (VR) is an immersive experience also called a computer-simulated

reality. It refers to computer technologies using reality headsets to generate the
realistic sounds, images and other sensations that replicate a real environment or
create an imaginary world. VR is a way to immerse users in an entirely virtual
world. A true VR environment will engage all five senses (taste, sight, smell, touch,
sound), but it is important to say that this is not always possible.

Today, it is easy to say that VR is a well-established new reality-tech. Moreover, after

years of popularity in the gaming industry, we are now seeing this technology into
more practical applications. The market and the industry are still excited about this
tech trend and further progress is expected in the near future.

Augmented Reality (AR)

Augmented Reality (AR) is a live, direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world

environment whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-
generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. As AR exists on
top of our own world it provides as much freedom as you are given within your
normal life. AR utilizes your existing reality and adds to it utilizing a device of some
sort. Mobile and tablets are the most popular mediums of AR now, through the
camera, the apps put an overlay of digital content into the environment. Custom
headsets are also being used. As popular AR examples there are Pokemon Go and
Snapchat’s new AR bitmojis.

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Mixed Reality (MR)

Mixed Reality (MR), sometimes referred to as hybrid reality, is the merging of real
and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualizations where physical
and digital objects co-exist and interact in real time. It means placing new imagery
within a real space in such a way that the new imagery is able to interact, to an
extent, with what is real in the physical world we know. The key characteristic of
MR is that the synthetic content and the real-world content are able to react to each
other in real time.

Extended Reality (XR)

Extended Reality (XR) is a newly added term to the dictionary of the technical
words. For now, only a few people are aware of XR. Extended Reality refers to all
real-and-virtual combined environments and human-machine interactions
generated by computer technology and wearables. Extended Reality includes all its
descriptive forms like the Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Mixed
Reality (MR). In other words, XR can be defined as an umbrella, which brings all
three Reality (AR, VR, MR) together under one term, leading to less public
confusion. Extended reality provides a wide variety and vast number of levels in the
Virtuality of partially sensor inputs to Immersive Virtuality.

Since past few years, we have been talking regarding AR, VR, and MR, and probably
in coming years, we will be speaking about XR.

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15/08/2023, 10:01 What really is the difference between AR / MR / VR / XR ? | by North of 41 | Medium

Summary: VR is immersing people into a completely virtual environment ; AR is

creating an overlay of virtual content, but can’t interact with the environment; MR is
a mixed of virtual reality and the reality, it creates virtual objects that can interact
with the actual environment. XR brings all three Reality (AR, VR, MR) together
under one term.

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