What is Augmented Reality? Everything You Need to Know
Using a camera and clever tracking technology, augmented reality shows you the real environment with computer-generated elements on top. It’s as simple as that!
In augmented reality, digital features are overlaid onto the real world. In virtual reality, you’re immersed in a completely virtual environment with no link to your real world. While they’re completely different, both are equally exciting, powerful and useful!
In the late 1990s, AR hit the mainstream… through sports! Broadcasters introduced augmented reality into their shows to make games easier to follow on television. From tracked hockey pucks that glowed on screens to overlaid yellow lines in the NFL to show first down markers – sports broadcasters started using AR to help viewers at home keep up with the games.
The next big advancement in augmented reality came in 2000. Hirokazu Kato from the Nara Institute of Science and Technology created an open-source library called ARToolKit. This bit of software changed the face of AR for good! Using clever video tracking, ARToolKit helped developers overlay virtual graphics onto the real world – and is still being used today!
Through the 2000s AR continued to push on, with advertising and gaming taking it to the next level. From games like AR Tennis developed for mobile phones to Esquire Magazine using AR in print media for the first time, innovative ideas and inventions came left, right and centre! But it wasn’t until the 2010s that consumers could easily get their hands on wearable augmented reality headsets. The Google Glass and Microsoft HoloLens let people experience AR up close and handsfree – helping pave the way for ClassVR, the world’s first AR and VR system designed for schools!
How Does Augmented Reality Work? An Overview of AR Technology
It all starts with a camera-equipped device. This could be a phone, a tablet or an AR/VR headset. You’ll use the camera to capture the environment around you. All sounds pretty normal so far, right? This is where the clever technology comes in.
First, an amazing bit of software called computer vision will identify the objects your camera is pointed at. Then, complex technologies like geo-location simultaneous localisation and depth tracking will build a 3D world that reflects your real world – meaning your device now has a 3D view of the space you’re in.
The virtual, augmented elements are then added into this 3D world. When you view the world through your device, whether that’s a VR headset, a phone or anything else, you can now see the virtual elements interacting with your real world… just think of the possibilities.