What is Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality and How is it going to change our future?

Devansh Dhruv
4 min readJul 27, 2020

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What is Virtual Reality?

VR headsets completely take over your vision to give you the impression that you’re somewhere else. The HTC Vive, the Oculus Rift, and other headsets are completely opaque, blocking out your surroundings when you wear them. If you put them on when they’re turned off, you might think you’re blindfolded.

When the headsets turn on, however, the LCD or OLED panels inside are refracted by the lenses to completely fill your field of vision with whatever is being displayed. It can be a game, a 360-degree video, or just the virtual space of the platforms’ interfaces. Visually, you’re taken to wherever the headset wants you to go — the outside world is replaced with a virtual one.

What is Augmented Reality ?

Whereas virtual reality replaces your vision, augmented reality adds to it. AR devices like the Microsoft HoloLens and various enterprise-level “smart glasses” are transparent, letting you see everything in front of you as if you are wearing a weak pair of sunglasses. The technology is designed for completely free movement while projecting images over whatever you look at. The concept extends to smartphones with AR apps and games like Pokemon Go, which use your phone’s camera to track your surroundings and overlay additional information on top of it, on the screen.

AR displays can offer something as simple as a data overlay that shows the time, to something as complicated as holograms floating in the middle of a room. Pokemon Go projects a Pokemon on your screen, on top of whatever the camera is looking at. The HoloLens and other smart glasses like the mysterious Magic Leap One, meanwhile, let you virtually place floating app windows and 3D decorations around you.

AR and VR are not the Same

Virtual reality and augmented reality accomplish two very different things in two very different ways, despite the similar designs of the devices themselves. VR replaces reality, taking you somewhere else. AR adds to reality, projecting information on top of what you’re already seeing. They’re both powerful technologies that have yet to make their mark with consumers, but show a lot of promise. They can completely change how we use computers in the future, but whether one or both will succeed is anyone’s guess right now.

The terms “virtual reality” and “augmented reality” get thrown around a lot these days, thanks to the resurgence of VR Headsets heralded by the Oculus Rift and the use of AR apps and games like Pokemon Go. They sound similar, and as the technologies develop, they bleed over into each other a bit. They’re two very different concepts, though, with characteristics that readily distinguish them from one another.

How brands have Integrated with AR and VR in the digital marketing strategy?

As technology advances, those desires change and a brand must keep pace with those changes.

Augmented reality (AR) is an emerging trend within marketing and sales strategies, one that allows brands to give their customers unique experiences with the convenience of tapping into their mobile devices.

Brands are integrating this technology in their Digital Marketing strategies to offer the audience “a feel of what they can expect from the product or service they are buying” & additionally, AR/VR also provides an innovative edge to their marketing efforts.

Here’s how these brands have utilised AR/VR in their marketing campaigns.

Samsung VR | A Moon For All Mankind VR

Samsung, in collaboration with NASA created an immersive 4D lunar gravity VR experience for a campaign to provide participants an actual moon landing experience on VR created moon. Users step into a flight suit and harness whilst wearing a Gear VR headset. They then immerse themselves in a visual and physical experience that recreates a moon mission

This is probably the most realistic moonwalking experience out there! Samsung’s design team and NASA’s Active Response Gravity Offload System (ARGOS) team worked to make this sensation as accurate as possible by mapping to the actual partial gravity experience of walking on the moon.

Ikea | Virtual Reality Store:

Ikea has set up a virtual reality initiative that allows customers to see what their house will look like after desired home improvements.

It has developed a VR-based app that allows customers to “place” furniture into their homes to decide on the look, feel, and fit. This is considered to be one of the simplest, most accessible and most practical VR applications to date.

The future of Virtual Reality ?

We’re simply beginning to break the surface with VR. The development of all-encompassing video and photograph is making it simple to “transport” watchers to places they would never physically be. Despite the fact that VR’s present essential utilize is gaming, it has critical potential for business utilize. Top worldwide tech organizations like Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Google, IBM, HP, Intel and Foxconn have just put resources into VR.

Through along these lines, Fullestop presents the infographic where you can see whole about virtual reality and their future arranging.

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