Augmented reality Vs. Virtual reality: What’s the difference?

Technologies such as AR and VR are truly a game changer for both brands and customers. Augmented reality, on the one hand, overlays digital information on top of the physical world. Virtual reality takes the users to a new world, separating them from their physical environment.

If you were to compare AR with VR, both technologies are interrelated with each other, and there's one thing in common – immersive experiences. People can explore the virtual world and talk to each other regardless of their geographical location.

Imagine if you integrate it into your business; what impact can it have on it?

Let's talk about what AR and VR technologies are and discuss the core differences between the two.

How is Augmented Reality different from Virtual Reality Technology?

AR can enhance the real world with virtual overlays, but virtual Reality creates an immersive, separate virtual environment. This means that AR enhances your physical world while Virtual Reality transports the user to the physical world.

Users can access immersive experiences through AR on their smartphones and devices. While VR requires users to wear a headset, which is an expensive gadget, without this, there will be a disconnect between the physical and real world.

The difference between Augmented reality and virtual Reality depends on its usage.

Virtual Reality has different usages in industrial training and virtual collaborations. Whether you want to use AR or VR technology, you need to see if you wish to enhance the real world or isolate the users into a new, separate world. 

What is Augmented Reality?

Augmented Reality relates to when the digital world is combined with natural elements. Any person who has a smartphone can get access to AR. This emerging technology removes the dullness of the physical world into the colorful and visual world by projecting virtual images using a phone camera.

Unlike Virtual reality which detaches the user from physical settings, it's an enhancement of the real world with virtual objects.

With Augmented reality, users can interact with the stuff in front of them, like an object in the room. Of course, users can manipulate it and create a new environment around them.

You might have used Snapchat filters, which are a byproduct of AR technology.

For Instance – Snapchat presents a layer of virtual Reality over the real world. This enhances customer experience as they can now interact with virtual objects in the real world.

Think of AR as the perfect mix of the physical world and virtual elements to create an artificial environment.

The scope of AR has expanded to various sectors, including mobile computing, healthcare, the aviation industry, and other businesses.

Augmented reality is more interactive and accessible as it requires smartphones to experience things. The only condition is that it depends on device camera quality and environment conditions.

Applications of Augmented Reality

AR has multiple use cases when used across different industries -

1. Brands in ecommerce can create engaging, meaningful, and immersive experiences for customers through Augmented reality.

They simplify the decision-making process for consumers by changing the way they interact with products earlier. Integration of AR and VR technologies allows users to see the product in action.

Several brands, such as Sephora, IKEA, and Starbucks, are using such technologies to increase customer engagement, reduce product returns, and increase conversion rates.

2. In the education sector, technologies such as AR/VR make it easy for students to digest scientific and complex concepts.

3. Healthcare professionals such as doctors and medical staff can perform the health checkup of patients remotely. They need an AR glass to see what problems patients are struggling with. It's useful in fields such as dermatology and medical specialties.

Surgeons, on the other hand, can see the unseen details by interacting with AR technology when performing surgery.

When it comes to providing treatment plans, Augmented reality does a pretty good job at healthcare. It identifies the genetics, lifestyle, and other traits of a patient to provide personalized treatment plans. This leaves no scope for errors and enhances the patient's experience.

4. The use of immersive technologies such as AR and VR simplifies the home buying process. Users can view the property from all angles without coming out of their comfort zone. This engages customers as they get a sense of and feel at home before buying it.

5. Augmented reality provides information to tourists about historical places and popular attractions.

6. AR makes the driving experience easier and safer. The one who’s driving the car can follow the step-by-step instructions instead of worrying about taking different turns finding a route.

The AR will tell them to follow this blue line or purple mode, and they'll reach their destination soon.

Here are the Few Examples of AR

1. IKEA app 

IKEA furniture allows shoppers to see whether the furniture would fit in their space or not. This reduces product return chances as customers know exactly what they're going to get. 

Customers can imagine how tables and furniture would look in their room.

2. Pokemon Go   

Pokemon GO is another popular concept of AR. The game purely focuses on locating and catching a cartoon character that is visually present in the surrounding area.  

The Pokemon App notifies the users about the presence of Pokemon in the area and then the user receives directions to find them.  

Here, the cartoon character superimposes the real-life setting, which is an AR experience.  

3. Quiver Vision

Quiver Vision is an AR app that brings color experience to the real world. Children can interact with their drawings in the 3D world and can go beyond the 2D objects. This enhances student engagement when creatures and 3D objects come out of their drawings. 

4.  Meta's Orion AR glasses

Meta introduced Orion's augmented reality glasses to bring digital objects into physical surroundings. This Orion glass is a part of project Nazarre, where Meta wants to provide immersive experiences to people.   

From multi-tasking windows to in-stream entertainment, these AR glasses blend virtual objects into real space. 

Think of this when you can see the recipe of food placed inside the refrigerator and plan your calendar well while washing dishes. The whole experience is immersive through Orion glasses. 

5. Lenskart 

Lenskart provides a try-before-you-buy experience for its customers.  Customers can see which sunglasses and eyeglasses fit their face size and shape. 

It provides an in-store feeling to customers as if they're present physically and try 10,000+ frames and choose the color that suits them the best. The whole app experience is designed with Augmented reality technology.  

The eyewear experience is accessible to customers in the comfort of their homes. This provides an amazing experience for customers. 

What is Virtual Reality? 

Virtual Reality provides an immersive experience allowing the user to view 3-dimensional images by wearing specific hardware such as a VR headset. 

People can interact with that environment using VR goggles or mobile devices. 

In the virtual environment, users are not only viewing the screen but are also immersed within the virtual environment and can interact with it.  

Users wear virtual headsets and head-mounted displays to feel like they’re present in an alternative world.  

The only downside of using VR technology is that it requires users to buy expensive headsets to experience interactive experiences. It causes motion sickness, VR fatigue for longer sessions, and disconnects users from their real surroundings. 

Applications of Virtual Reality

1. Just like Augmented Reality, Virtual reality can be widely used in various sectors such as healthcare, health training, and patient treatment simulations.  

 2. VR is a game changer in the retail space as customers can try on clothes using body scanning technology and see whether they would fit them or not. Not only is it a sustainable move, but it also reduces shipping costs. 

 3. This technology brings people together where they can meet, share their ideas, and feel space as if they’re present physically. Platforms like Spatial allow people to work collaboratively. 

Here are the Few Examples of Virtual Reality

Let's discuss the real-world examples of brands that use Virtual reality to blend digital and physical worlds-  

1. ZSpace 

ZSpace is an AR/VR platform that makes learning more fun and accessible for students.

They can conduct physical experiments virtually such as analysis of internal structures like the anatomy of animals, such as frog organs and their digestive and circulatory systems.

By conducting experiments in a virtual setting, learners can create their findings report safely and their performance improves dramatically. A study states that students who interacted with VR labs saw an improvement in their test scores by 15%.

2. Rift Tour (Fortnite)

Musicians like Ariana Grande performed her live show on the Fortnite platform, which was more like a virtual concert by combining music, games, and fantasy together. For others, it looked like a virtual concert, but it was an immersive story. 

Result? This virtual show attracted hundreds and millions of viewers in real-time. 

3. Apple Vision Pro 

Apple Vision Pro is a type of mixed-reality headset that transforms your room into a personal theater. When putting on this headset, users feel as if they’re talking to apps; photos become a gallery for them.

They can blink their eyes to navigate, flip their fingers to scroll, and use their voices to dictate the world. These are Spatial experiences. For the cinematic experience, viewers can make their screen as big as they want (100 meters wide) so they can feel as if they're part of the action. 

Best part?

You can turn your room into a meeting space and talk to your colleagues as if they're sitting beside you. Conversation feels more natural, and collaboration becomes easier. 

4. Gucci town

Gucci, an Italian luxury brand for clothing and fashion goods, launched Gucci Town. Gucci Town is a virtual world where players can explore the town, get various insights to learn about the town's history, and network with other players in the game. 

Gucci Town is the place where people can purchase clothes for their avatars.   

5. Tom Shoes 

The business model of Tom Shoes works in such a way that for every pair of shoes the customer purchases, the company will donate it to someone who needs them.  

So, Tom Shoes launched a campaign, "walk in shoes," allowing shoppers to experience the journey in the virtual environment and benefit directly from the shoes.

How does the Future of AR/VR Look Like?

• Virtual fitting rooms are coming, which enable users to see what an item looks like before buying it. 
• WebAR will gain huge prominence allowing users to get AR experiences through web browsers. 
• Users will control apps and devices through eye movements.  
• The integration of AI in AR wearable devices makes a whole difference. Let’s say a user wears an AR glass and he walks across the city, he gets real time directions when to take a next turn and get information about the nearby coffee shop or when he comes across a building, the AR glass will tell everything about that. 
• In the future, people can make money with AR/VR content. 

Because of the increasing demand for AR/VR devices, users continue to consume more content, which increases demand for more content production. 

How can BigOhTech help you create engaging user experiences through AR/VR development?

The choice between AR and VR technology depends on your business goals. If you want to enhance the real world, like helping a technician fix the equipment or a shopper, visualize how the couch will live in the living room, then Augmented reality is the right technology. 

But if your objective is to create a fully controlled, immersive environment for entertainment, visual storytelling, or training purposes, VR is the way to go.

As an AR/VR development agency, we enhance customer experience by providing a digital environment using tools and platforms such as Unity, AR Core, Vuforia, etc. 

We know that connecting with customers at a deeper level is possible when they get such immersive experiences, so we design such applications integrating AR and VR tools such as- 

• AR/VR games  
• Visual solutions  
• 3D design and development solutions  
• Support and maintenance 

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