What is augmented reality?
Augmented reality (AR) is the overlaying of digitally-created content on top of the real world. AR lets a user interact with both the real world and digital elements or augmentations at the same time.
How does AR work?
AR can be offered to users via headsets like Microsoft's HoloLens, or through the video camera of a smartphone, making it accessible to a wide range of user groups.
AR exists along a spectrum that occasionally blurs with VR, particularly in implementations where digital content increasingly dominates the visual field. AR's real accessibility advantage is that it doesn't require full visual isolation, letting users stay aware of their environment while interacting with digital content.
In Unity specifically, AR Foundation is the cross-platform framework used to build AR experiences once and deploy to both Android and iOS, using platform-specific plugins for ARCore and ARKit under the hood.
AR vs. VR
AR and VR are often mentioned together, but they work in fundamentally different ways.
How is AR used?
Beyond straightforward overlays, more advanced AR applications can modify perception itself. One example is simulating visual impairments for medical training. Other implementations gradually transform environments for interactive storytelling. Taqtile takes a more standard approach instead, using procedural overlays for industrial training to help workers learn tasks faster with fewer errors.
This has driven adoption across sectors including:
- Retail: Virtual product previews enhance shopping experiences.
- Manufacturing: Assembly guidance overlays improve efficiency, and Taqtile uses a similar approach for industrial training, helping workers learn tasks faster with fewer errors.
- Healthcare: Visualizing anatomical structures during procedures.
- Education: Complex concepts become tangible through spatial visualization.
- Automotive: BMW built an in-car AR experience for driver assistance and passenger engagement.
Development platforms now provide comprehensive toolkits for spatial mapping, light estimation, and occlusion handling, enabling increasingly convincing integration between physical and digital elements.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
Can AR and VR be combined in the same experience?
Yes, this is often called mixed reality (MR). A headset can blend real-world passthrough with fully virtual elements, letting digital objects interact with your actual surroundings rather than replacing them entirely or just floating on top of them.
Do I need special hardware to experience AR?
Not necessarily. A smartphone camera is enough for many AR experiences, dedicated headsets like HoloLens offer a more immersive, hands-free version, but aren't required for AR generally.
Is Pokémon Go an example of AR?
Yes, it's one of the most widely recognized examples: it overlays digital creatures onto a live camera view of the real world, which is exactly what defines augmented reality.