AR vs MR

The acronyms VR, AR and MR are often used interchangeably, but the terms are clearly distinct. Each of these technologies have a certain purpose, from different industries like education to entertainment, it's increasingly an immersive world. 

Augmented reality (AR), is the overlay of digital content on the real-world environment. Virtual objects can be in many various forms such as images, videos, or interactive data. Such AR experiences are brought to life with portable devices, such as smartphones, and smart glasses and AR headsets. Unlike VR headsets, AR glasses and headsets, such as Glass, for example,  don’t immerse users into a fully virtual environment but just add digital/virtual objects to the real world. AR can be useful in many fields, from medicine to advertising, to manufacturing, to retail, to navigation, and so much more. 

Mixed Reality (MR) is probably the XR term that gets the most confused and misused. Many consider it to be different from AR, but in actuality, MR is a subset of AR. Mixed Reality experiences involve the co-existence and interaction of real-world and virtual objects, producing new environments and visualizations. While AR involves the combination of both the digital and physical worlds, it doesn't always involve an interaction between the two. Experiences that do, however, are both considered augmented and mixed reality. Snapchat’s filters, for example, are an AR feature, while the ability to map 3D content to an object in a repair app is an MR feature.

Mixed reality (MR) allows you to see virtual objects just like you can in augmented reality, but these objects can interact with the real world as well. In mixed reality, virtual content is not only overlaid on the real environment (as in AR), but it is anchored to and interacts with that environment. Different types of devices are required to experience such forms of reality. Holographic devices have translucent glasses that allow you to see your real-world surroundings as well as virtual objects. Just like AR, mixed reality can be useful in certain fields such as education. These technologies are quickly developing, and we should expect to see more of these technologies as time passes.