There are many new terms in the 21st century, and sometimes we can be confused by their definitions or differences. We are here to help you! 

What is AR (Augmented Reality)?

To begin with, let us first explain what Augmented reality (AR) is. AR is an enhanced version of the real physical world. In other words, you can see the real-life environment right in front of you with a digital augmentation overlaid on it. Isn’t it cool? AR can be used not only for such expected industries as education, e-commerce, sport, healthcare, or tourism, but the main focus of this technology is entertainment. Most of us remember 2016 when Pokemon Go was released, and the technology that made this game so popular was AR. And if we start looking for more use cases of AR technology in real life it is so easy to find them! Moreover, most of us have already benefited from it. For example, Snapchat – is an American multimedia messaging app. It is full of trendy and catchy filters. Applications like Snapchat follow a basic procedure of imposing these filters on the user’s face, and it happens thanks to AR technology. 

Then, Google helps us with its digital maps that can be accessed easily on mobile phones. And here is an edition of Google Street View in which direction arrows and markings can be seen live in front of us. It makes use of AR to superimpose information over real-life objects. The Biom Software team can easily provide you with such necessary and helpful technology to upgrade your product! 

Key Differences Between VR and AR

Now that we have clarified everything about AR, it is time to understand the main differences between AR and Virtual reality (VR).

1. The key factor in VR is that it is completely separated from the real world. While AR allows you to expand the perception of our reality, in VR you can simulate a whole new dimension and explore it more deeply.
2. VR is also often used for entertainment purposes, for example, for creating VR games or metaverses. However, such industries as space & military actively implement VR to make preparation processes with minimal risks and help soldiers suffering from battlefield trauma to overcome these conditions and prepare for new or unexpected situations.
3. Then, VR is also common in the Sports industry by creating digital training devices that help athletes to improve their own performance and analyze their techniques.
4. A crucial field of Healthcare also found a way to use VR for training surgical techniques and other doctors’ training.
5. Or another example – Hotel Marriott. The owners used VR technology to create a very useful approach for event planning with a realistic idea of how customers` events could look with a VR-powered headset. Users can see 360-degree, 3D views of custom-designed room set-ups, making event planning easier than ever.

Conclusion

All in all, AR and VR technologies are not competitive, and they are very different and so beneficial for users! We do recommend you start right now exploring them and start this experience with the Biom Software Team. We are here, as usual, willing to help you!