Humanity has progressed so much with technology that we have now come to a point where we could create our own version of reality. Gone were the days when all those science fictions remained within movie theaters or books, it has now stepped beyond the boundaries of what we thought was possible and wasn’t. This is what virtual and augmented reality does.
Often used interchangeably, both alters the existing reality as we know it. Virtual Reality or VR creates a simulated environment. trying to stimulate as many senses as possible, virtual reality It places the user in a fictional universe to create an experience.
On the other hand, Augmented Reality or AR takes information generated by a computer and simulates it over the real world during real time. This technology takes the data from the computer and renders it from the viewpoint of the camera in such a way that it appears to exist.
Though its definition appears too complicated and a mix of technical gibberish, both VR & AR have already found its way into people’s daily life, especially AR. One good example is the popular game, Pokemon GO. Pokemons or pocket monsters, fictional characters from a well-known animated series, appears to exist in the real world as seen through players’ smartphones. There are also applications that allow foreign tourists to translate street signs and even allow buyers to see how certain furniture would look like even before they brought it home.
With such technology at hand, the possibilities are endless. Before we know it, there could be hologram map guides to buildings, ways to visualize surgeries before it takes place and create in ways more advanced than we know it. However, these pros do not come free of cons. There are still limitations to what AR and VR could do. It does not come cheap and would often require date to be downloaded prior to being used. And yet, it will not stop us from moving forward, the same way that nothing did. Humanity could be a step closer to a future far greater than we have ever imagined. And this, this is just the beginning.