The University of Manchester - Humanities eLearning

What are Extended Reality and Immersive Technologies (VR, AR, MR)?

Overview: What Is Extended Reality?

Extended Reality (XR) is the umbrella term that covers the related immersive technologies of Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR). XR is one of the biggest emerging technologies impacting on how we live today.

From entertainment to education, engineering to healthcare, XR is being involved and developed across a wide range of industries. As technology develops and improves, costs lowered and technology becomes more widely accessible for all, there seems limitless possibilities for future real-world applications. Haptic feedback, eye, hand and body tracking, photorealistic avatars and the metaverse, are just some of the current trends in XR technology.

In terms of education, the use of XR technology has the potential to change how we learn, teach and interact – and how we communicate and collaborate with each other.

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Extended Reality and Immersive Technologies

Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality uses technology to enhance or ‘augment’ a real-world experience. Users can explore and interact with digital content alongside the real world.

Examples:

  • Enhance [printed] material to access multimedia via QR codes, photo recognition with mobile devices, apps or special ‘AR’ glasses

  • Image recognition of 3D-objects to bring to life (architecture/planning models)

  • Interaction with real-world objects (tree / building measurement)

  • Digital objects placed in real world (interior/landscape design, historic photographs + descriptions)

  • Pokemon Go (gaming using smartphones)

Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality immerses the user in a virtual environment which they can explore and interact with. Generally a headset is used to place the user in the virtual environment but audio and hand controllers can be used to enhance the immersive experience. VR experiences do not need to use expensive equipment and can also be experienced from a desktop computer or a mobile device using viewing goggles such as Google Cardboard.

Examples:

Immersive Video (360 video)

This type of video allows the user to feel ‘immersed’ in the video rather than purely being a viewer of a 2D screen. 360-degree videos, 3D videos, multiscreen projections allow this enhancement.

Examples:

Mixed Reality (MR)

Mixed Reality is a blend of virtual and physical worlds. This is where humans interact with physical environments and objects using virtual reality.

MR is an extension of Augmented Reality.

Examples:

Photogrammetry

Photogrammetry is the process of creating a 3D digital image of an object, person or landscape through a complex process of scanning, measurements and image data gathering. The results are accurate digital replicas of the real-world.

Examples: