Thursday, October 30, 2025

What is Augmented Reality

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Augmented reality systems show virtual objects in the actual world – like cat ears and whiskers on a Snapchat selfie, or how well a specific chair might slot in a room. The first big break for AR was the “Pokémon GO” game, released in 2016 with a feature that permit players see virtual Pokémon standing in front of them, able to be captured and played with. Now, technology firms like Microsoft and Mozilla – the corporate behind the Firefox browser – and even retail businesses like IKEA and Lego are exploring the potential of AR.

Where I do research, an AR lab on the University of Michigan School of Information, it seems everyone knows about AR and is worked up in regards to the technology becoming popular amongst most people. My colleagues and I watch videos of impressive AR demonstrations, check out latest applications and play with latest devices. The research community’s enthusiasm could also be why several experts – including some I talk with – say they expect AR to be commonplace in five years, or envision AR glasses replacing smartphones inside a decade.

Exploring the probabilities of augmented reality.

But as an AR researcher with expertise in each industry and academia, I disagree with those optimistic views. Most people within the U.S. haven’t heard of AR – and most of those that have don’t really know what it’s. And that’s only one barrier between augmented reality today and a future where it’s in every single place. Overall, there are three major challenges to be overcome.

Hardware difficulties

When I first tried AR glasses three years ago, they quickly overheated and shut down – even when attempting to do something fairly basic, like placing two virtual objects in a room. While there was plenty of improvement on this respect, other problems have emerged. The HoloLens system – probably the most advanced AR headsets – essentially requires a user to hold a Microsoft Kinect system and a pc on their head, which is kind of heavy and limits the user’s field of view. A unique issue are AR experiences that work across systems.

Microsoft’s HoloLens system requires wearing a pc in your head.
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson

Even “Pokémon GO,” the preferred app that really uses AR, drains smartphone batteries extremely rapidly. And the AR function doesn’t make the sport significantly better – or really different in any respect – though it’s neat at first to see a Pikachu standing on the lawn in front of you. With so little profit and such a severe hit to device performance, every player I do know, including me, has turned off the AR mode.

Lack of real uses up to now

Just as people turn off AR in “Pokémon GO,” I’ve never seen or heard of anyone actually using IKEA’s furniture app because it’s allegedly intended; the app has just 3,100 reviews in Apple’s app store, far fewer than the 104,000 for “Pokémon GO.” It’s purported to be useful to people looking for to revamp their living spaces, letting them use their smartphones so as to add virtual furniture to actual rooms.

Does that chair look good right there?
IKEA

Apple and Google have released AR toy and demo apps built with their latest platforms ARKit and ARCore – corresponding to fidgeting with virtual dominos. They are engaging, and the 3D models look great. They do what they’re designed to do, but their functions aren’t especially useful.

This is partly attributable to the indisputable fact that AR, just like the web, is only a basic technology that needs people to create uses for it. The web began as Arpanet in 1969, but began to grow widely only when Tim Berners-Lee invented the “World Wide Web” – a now-dated term – in 1989. And it wasn’t until the 2000s that regular individuals who used the web could also create online content for others to eat. That level of development and innovation has not yet happened for AR, though Mozilla is taking initial steps on this direction by attempting to bring AR to on a regular basis web browsers like Firefox.

Marketing challenges

Even individuals who use Snapchat don’t consider it as an augmented reality app – though that’s exactly what it’s. It’s AR technology that figures out where to place the dog ears, heart eyes or whiskers on their friends’ faces – and sends rainbow vomit out of their mouths. People who don’t know what augmented reality is, or who’ve never consciously experienced it – even in the event that they use it every day – aren’t going to make a purchase order simply because a product has some AR capability.

Putting graphics on a Snapchat selfie involves using augmented reality.
dennizn/Shutterstock.com

There’s also some confusion in labeling and marketing of AR technologies. Many people have began to listen to about virtual reality, which is usually an immersive fully virtual world that doesn’t include elements of the user’s real environment. The distinctions get fuzzier with mixed reality – sometimes labeled “MR” but other times “XR.” Originally the term meant anything in between a totally real and a totally virtual experience – which could include AR. But now Microsoft is saying products and apps are MR in the event that they provide each augmented and fully virtual experiences. That leaves customers unclear what’s being advertised – though they’ll understand it won’t be very useful and should run their phone batteries down quickly.

I’m with my AR-optimist friends and colleagues in seeing plenty of potential for the longer term, but there’s an extended solution to go. They – and I – are already working hard on making the hardware higher, finding useful applications and clarifying product labeling. But it is going to take plenty of this tough work and possibly many more years before mainstream America lives in a really augmented reality.

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