1. Physical Reality

2. Extended Reality

3. All-in-one

4. Final remarks

5. References

Everyone knows what physical reality is. It is what we experience during our waking consciousness. Although this might differ between a kid, a cat, you, me, under the effect of different substances and different psychopathologies, generally speaking, we tend to agree on what constitutes the physical reality aka the “real” reality. You can define physical reality in contrast to dreams, imagination, metaphysical places, or the virtual worlds (metaverse). I am leaving it there for today’s article.

XR either stands for Extended Reality or X times R (X * R), where X is a variable that can take different values (V, A, M). XR is the umbrella term for Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality. Now let’s explore the subcategories of the XR.

Virtual Reality. Virtual Reality (or VR) is a computer-generated immersive experience delivered via VR Headsets, hand controllers, motion trackers, and haptic suits. It is, typically the most immersive form of extended reality. Your body is replaced with an avatar, you cannot see your surroundings and you are encapsulated in a 3D 360 virtual environment. VR is most commonly used for gaming, but alternative use cases are being explored, such as education, tourism, and cinema. In my opinion, VR will be the backbone of the metaverse. It is what makes the difference between games like Sims, Secondlife, Sanalika, Popmundo, Fortnite, the crims, or any MMORPG. I am not necessarily saying these games are inferior. But I think what sets metaverse apart is its immersive nature.

Next up we have Augmented Reality (or AR). AR is basically overlaying computer-generated displays and virtual objects over the real world. I think this one is the most familiar for most of us since you can experience AR with a mobile phone, tablet, or AR glasses. Some good examples are Pokemon Go, Snapchat filters, and AR furniture fitting apps. So what is common in all of these applications is that you overlay something virtual on something physical. It can be a pokemon on a beach, bunny ears on your head, or a carpet in your room. If VR is in its baby steps, AR is an embryo. In the future much more sophisticated AR glasses and applications will be commercially available. This brings me to our final form of extended reality.

Snapchat lenses utilize AR and have seen tremendous mainstream adoption, lens.snapchat.com

Mixed Reality in simplest terms is Augmented reality on steroids. Again you have the physical reality as a base layer. On top of it, you have objects and panels, which you can interact with. Think of Pokemon Go for example. when a wild pokemon appears, it does not perfectly fit the terrain. It looks a little awkward, someone can step on it, etc. That’s because your device does not scan the environment or your movements (like VR would do) it just puts a new layer on to your reality. So if Pokemon Go was an MR game, you would be able to throw Poké Ball with your hands, not swiping the screen, you could be able to manually manipulate your bunny ears by reaching your head in a Snapchat lens, you could have some futuristic ironman panels to work on stuff instead of a computer screen. These panels would be an example of AR if they only stayed there and you not being able to manipulate them with real-life movement, but if you can “touch” the AR display it is MR. Here you see Zuckerberg playing fence with Lee Kiefer.

This is a very advanced form of mixed reality. What you see is the real world as a base layer. On top of it, there is Lee Kiefer (left) as a hologram and augmented reality interfaces on top of both players. Since Zuckerberg can interact with the hologram, it is a form of mixed reality.

The following screenshot is from Connect 2021 video.

VR, AR, MR all in one place, Connect 2021

There is a lot going on here. First, you have the VR as a base layer (some sort of space station?). On top of it, there is this animated street art piece inside the room which is normally an AR element. Then you have people hanging out in the metaverse with realistic and stylistic avatars. There is this lady as a hologram which is more like a mixed reality piece (and the hardest thing to place in there in terms of technical complexity). Finally, there is this WhatsApp video call as an overlay (AR) over the base VR layer.

It is worth noting that the boundaries between these terms are not 100% clear. Also, the metaverse might eventually consist of a mixture of all of these. Bear in mind that we do not know what will metaverse look like, nor does Zuckerberg.

See you in the metaverse!

(^*.*^)

1. Physical Reality

2. Extended Reality

3. All-in-one

4. Final remarks

5. References

Everyone knows what physical reality is. It is what we experience during our waking consciousness. Although this might differ between a kid, a cat, you, me, under the effect of different substances and different psychopathologies, generally speaking, we tend to agree on what constitutes the physical reality aka the “real” reality. You can define physical reality in contrast to dreams, imagination, metaphysical places, or the virtual worlds (metaverse). I am leaving it there for today’s article.

XR either stands for Extended Reality or X times R (X * R), where X is a variable that can take different values (V, A, M). XR is the umbrella term for Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality. Now let’s explore the subcategories of the XR.

Virtual Reality. Virtual Reality (or VR) is a computer-generated immersive experience delivered via VR Headsets, hand controllers, motion trackers, and haptic suits. It is, typically the most immersive form of extended reality. Your body is replaced with an avatar, you cannot see your surroundings and you are encapsulated in a 3D 360 virtual environment. VR is most commonly used for gaming, but alternative use cases are being explored, such as education, tourism, and cinema. In my opinion, VR will be the backbone of the metaverse. It is what makes the difference between games like Sims, Secondlife, Sanalika, Popmundo, Fortnite, the crims, or any MMORPG. I am not necessarily saying these games are inferior. But I think what sets metaverse apart is its immersive nature.

Next up we have Augmented Reality (or AR). AR is basically overlaying computer-generated displays and virtual objects over the real world. I think this one is the most familiar for most of us since you can experience AR with a mobile phone, tablet, or AR glasses. Some good examples are Pokemon Go, Snapchat filters, and AR furniture fitting apps. So what is common in all of these applications is that you overlay something virtual on something physical. It can be a pokemon on a beach, bunny ears on your head, or a carpet in your room. If VR is in its baby steps, AR is an embryo. In the future much more sophisticated AR glasses and applications will be commercially available. This brings me to our final form of extended reality.

Snapchat lenses utilize AR and have seen tremendous mainstream adoption, lens.snapchat.com

Mixed Reality in simplest terms is Augmented reality on steroids. Again you have the physical reality as a base layer. On top of it, you have objects and panels, which you can interact with. Think of Pokemon Go for example. when a wild pokemon appears, it does not perfectly fit the terrain. It looks a little awkward, someone can step on it, etc. That’s because your device does not scan the environment or your movements (like VR would do) it just puts a new layer on to your reality. So if Pokemon Go was an MR game, you would be able to throw Poké Ball with your hands, not swiping the screen, you could be able to manually manipulate your bunny ears by reaching your head in a Snapchat lens, you could have some futuristic ironman panels to work on stuff instead of a computer screen. These panels would be an example of AR if they only stayed there and you not being able to manipulate them with real-life movement, but if you can “touch” the AR display it is MR. Here you see Zuckerberg playing fence with Lee Kiefer.

This is a very advanced form of mixed reality. What you see is the real world as a base layer. On top of it, there is Lee Kiefer (left) as a hologram and augmented reality interfaces on top of both players. Since Zuckerberg can interact with the hologram, it is a form of mixed reality.

The following screenshot is from Connect 2021 video.

VR, AR, MR all in one place, Connect 2021

There is a lot going on here. First, you have the VR as a base layer (some sort of space station?). On top of it, there is this animated street art piece inside the room which is normally an AR element. Then you have people hanging out in the metaverse with realistic and stylistic avatars. There is this lady as a hologram which is more like a mixed reality piece (and the hardest thing to place in there in terms of technical complexity). Finally, there is this WhatsApp video call as an overlay (AR) over the base VR layer.

It is worth noting that the boundaries between these terms are not 100% clear. Also, the metaverse might eventually consist of a mixture of all of these. Bear in mind that we do not know what will metaverse look like, nor does Zuckerberg.

See you in the metaverse!

(^*.*^)