Read All About It: Augmented Reality Has Arrived

Learning anatomy using AR

Here’s how AR is changing your world

Augmented reality, commonly known as AR, is a technology that changes the world you see. AR uses software to add a layer of digital information (usually audio or video) to your view of the physical world. Some applications require a special headset or glasses. But if you have a smartphone or tablet with a camera, you have probably already explored AR.

AR isn’t new; it has been around for more than 20 years. Don’t confuse it with VR (Virtual Reality): while VR creates a digital environment with no view of the real world, AR adds digital content to where you actually are.

Best-selling smartphone games like Pokemon Go or Harry Potter: Wizarding World use AR to impose images of characters on your view of the real world. The apps use the device’s camera to capture images of the physical world so that it looks and feels as if you are in the same environment as the game you are playing.

The popular photography and social-media app SnapChat also depends on AR. As you take selfies using different filters, the camera and software work together to add a layer of visual data on your face. You can then manipulate your features and produce photos and videos of yourself as various characters.

AR All Around

Museums and parks are now experimenting with AR. For example, the museum at George Washington’s Mount Vernon home lends users AR headsets that overlay digital content onto the real landscape. That adds narration, sound effects, videos, and journey-into-the-past simulations to your walk on the grounds. Wearing the headset, tourists watch the main building change from the modest house built by Washington’s father in 1734 to today’s grand mansion.

AR can also make books come to life. Many publishers are already releasing books that incorporate augmented reality technology. Using a device with these books, you can unlock special audio and video features—or even games that are part of the story—as you read.

Shopping is becoming easier with augmented reality, too. Users can “try on” a new pair of glasses or clothing by taking a selfie and using an app to see how they would look before buying the item. With advances in retail technology, customers may soon be able to customize an outfit’s colors, fabric, and cut, and have it shipped directly to their home without ever having to enter a store.

Future AR Visions

More smart and useful new AR applications are in development. Augmented Reality Auto Repair promises to give beginners AR images that will help them replace air filters or tackle oil changes. And you may soon be taking AR cooking lessons—built right into your stove—with on-the-spot images that safely teach you the best techniques for preparing hot meals.

Even the sky is an AR playground. If you’ve ever wondered about the names of the stars, planets, and constellations above your head at night, wonder no more: wherever you are, AR astronomy apps today can display the outline and names of those nighttime attractions for you.

It turns out that not even the sky’s the limit for augmented reality!