Augmented (AR) and Virtual (VR) Reality are technologies that are often equated, so it is important to know how these two realities differ. What is that point that separates them? Virtual Reality is a three-dimensional image or artificially recreated environment that allows an immersive experience. In this way, we want to achieve complete immersion and presentation in such a way that all doubts are temporarily removed and the virtual environment is perceived as real. To use Virtual Reality, we need specially created glasses, through which we enter the virtual environment. Augmented Reality, on the other hand, is a technology that enables the enrichment or expansion of the physical world by adding virtual information. It allows you to add virtual elements and content. To use Augmented Reality we need a smart device with a pre-installed app with the option of retrieving information online.

IN VIRTUAL REALITY, WE PLACE THE REAL WORLD INTO THE VIRTUAL, IN AUGMENTED REALITY, IT IS EXACTLY THE REVERSE BECAUSE HERE WE PLACE THE VIRTUAL WORLD INTO THE REAL ONE!

Augmented reality is technology, which with additional content/information augments or enriches the image of real the world. It is about putting virtual content into the real world. You can add to your content an image, animation, video, sound, 3D model, link to your web page, or other content. We will give life to your prints, products, services, … and revive them with creative content.

Augmented Reality is a technology that enriches or extends our physical environment by adding virtual information. To put it differently, Augmented Reality enables adding virtual elements – like videos, 3D models, animation, connections, and more – to the real world. By doing so, we can change the perception of the real world.

The term itself dates back to the year 1990, and the first use of Augmented Reality for commercial use was on television and the military. With the development of the Internet and smartphones, the Augmented Reality moved to the second phase of development, and today it is largely connected with interactivity. It allows the content to be directly projected onto physical objects, thereby merging with real-time.

HISTORY

• • 1980:Steve Mann develops the first portable computer called EyeTap, which he designed with the purpose to carry it on the head in front of the eyes. The device captured an event and showed it to all users, who used this headset. In 1987, Douglas George and Robert Morris developed a prototype of the headset (HUD). It showed astronomical data in on the real sky.
  • 1990: The year was marked by the birth of the term “Augmented Reality”. It first appeared in the work of Thomas Caudella and David Mizella – a Boeing company researcher. In 1992, Louis Rosenberg, an US Air Force employee, created an AR system named Virtual Fixtures. In 1999, a team of scientists led by Frank Delgado and Mike Abernathy tested a new navigation program that generated data from runaways and streets through the camera in a helicopter.
  • 2000: In 2004, Trimble Navigation introduced the headset system for outdoor use.
  • Today: Today, Augmented Reality is used in various fields, it enables daily use on smartphones and makes life easier for navigation around the world.

TYPES OF AUGMENTED REALITY
Today, there are several categories of Augmented Reality, which vary according to the purpose and final goal. Below we represent various possibilities of using Augmented Reality, which we can prepare for you and augment the world:

1. Augmented Reality based on the tracker
   Augmented Reality based on the tracker or image recognition uses the smart device’s camera and the visible tracker to which it places various augmented content. It can recognize any image that is defined and places the desired content on it. Besides, the application also calculates the orientation and position of the content that is placed on the selected tracker.
2. Augmented Reality without a tracker
   This option of Augmented Reality is used in many cases, as it works based on location recognition and accordingly displays the content. This option is supported by smart devices that allow location recognition. It is most often used in combination with a map or getting the information where the selected location is.
3. Augmented Reality based on projection
   It works by projecting artificial light on the surface of real objects and enables human interaction. The user’s interaction is detected by distinguishing between the anticipated/known projection and the changed projection, which is caused by the user.
4. Augmented Reality based on overlapping
   By partial and complete overlap, we replace the real view of an object or a space with augmented content. In the case of Augmented Reality based on overlapping, the recognition of the object, which is then replaced with the selected content, plays the key role.
5. Obogatena resničnost točno določeni lokaciji
   By partial and complete overlap, we replace the real view of an object or a space with augmented content. In the case of Augmented Reality based on overlapping, the recognition of the object, which is then replaced with the selected content, plays the key role.
6. Augmented Reality in a parallel world
   With the help of the application, you can step into a parallel world in real-time and experience the virtual environment in all its beauty. Just a step through the door and we are already in a whole new, virtual, world.

If we summarize everything, the Augmented Reality makes it possible to add virtual content to the real world, thereby, to some extent, deleting the boundaries between the two worlds. Augmented Reality enables the upgrade of the current world of content and offers a more immersive experience to the user. It opens a new world that gives users new experiences and to advertisers new options of access to the users. By using it, we can extend a limited area with “almost” unlimited possibilities. By using Augmented Reality, you will step further, but at the same time closer to the user, thereby enabling more immersive recognition of your content.

Virtual Reality is a technology, which in our lives comes with fast speed and enables a completely new view on the development of the virtual environment. It is a computer simulation, computer-generated information, which includes simulation and interactivity in real-time and affects our sensual channels – looks, touch, sound, smell, taste, and more. Technology, which enables immersion into a virtual environment through which we get various information. With a help of Virtual Reality, we are not nor passive observers, but we are actively involved in the recreated environment.

Virtual Reality is a realistic three-dimensional image or artistic environment that is usually presented in such a way all temporary deviations in the virtual environment are accepted as a real environment. Virtual Reality can best be understood by defining what we want to achieve – total immersion.

Total immersion means that sensual experience is felt as real, and at the same time, we forget that it is a virtual-artificial environment and we begin to interact with it in the same way as we do in the real world. With the help of Virtual Reality, we can imitate the properties of the real environment. This means that the Virtual Reality environment can simulate our everyday environment (for example: walk in the park, walk in the favorite city …) or exceeds the boundaries of physical reality by creating a world where physical laws do not apply or do not exist (for example: fight with aliens, travel through space, visiting other planets with zero gravity, …).

KEY ELEMENTS OF VIRTUAL REALITY
Today, there are several categories of Virtual Reality, which differ according to the purpose of use and the ultimate goal. Below are various possibilities for using Virtual Reality, which we can prepare for you and thus immerse you in the virtual world:

1. 1. Virtual environment: it is a three-dimensional environment that is often, but not necessarily, implemented through media (for rendering, display), where the user can interactively participate. In the virtual world, visual perspectives respond to changes in motion and interaction that imitate actions from the real world.
   2. Immersion: it is the perception of physical presence in a non-physical world. It gives a sense of presence, a point where the human brain believes that something is real, although it is not, what we achieve through mental and/or physical means. The state of total immersion exists when enough senses are activated to create the perception of presence in the non-physical world. The immersion is divided into two types:
      1. • mental immersion: a deep mental state of engagement, with the exclusion of a doubt that someone is in a virtual world.
         • physical immersion: presented physical participation into the virtual world, with the exclusion of a doubt that someone is in a virtual world.
   3. Sensory feedback: Virtual Reality needs as many of our senses as possible to simulate the virtual environment. These senses include vision, hearing, touch, and other senses. For proper encouragement of these senses, we need feedback, which is obtained through the integrated hardware and software. Examples of hardware include a headset, special gloves for sensing, manual controls, and more.
   4. Interactivity: the element of interactivity is crucial for Virtual Reality, which provides users with comfort at which they naturally integrate into the virtual environment. If the virtual environment responds to the user’s action naturally, the enthusiasm and feelings of immersion will remain. If the virtual environment cannot respond quickly enough, the human brain will notice this, and the feeling of immersion will disappear. The responses of the virtual environment to interaction can include the way how the participant moves and changes his point of view: usually with the movement of the head.

TYPES OF VIRTUAL REALITY
There are several types of technologies for creating Virtual Reality. Types of Virtual Reality vary according to the use cases.

• 1. Non-immersion Virtual Reality: this is the least immersive implementation of Virtual Reality. In a non-immersive simulation, only a part of the user’s senses is stimulated, which enables the peripheral awareness of reality outside the simulation. Users enter the three-dimensional virtual environment through a portal or window using standard high-resolution monitors.
  2. Semi-immersion: simulations provide a more immersive experience, in which the user is semi, not totally, immersed in the virtual environment. Semi-immersion simulators represent and exploit a similar technology, which we can found in flight simulators. It is run by high-performance graphics computing systems, often connected with large projection systems.
     Z delnim ali popolnim prekrivanjem zamenjamo realni pogled objekta ali prostora z novo obogateno vsebino. Pri obogateni resničnosti na osnovi prekrivanja ključno vlogo igra prepoznavanje objekta, ki ga potem zamenja z izbrano vsebino.
  3. Total-immersion: it provides the most versatile use of Virtual Reality technology. In total-immersion simulation, we need a headset and a motion detector to simulate all the senses of the user. Total-immersion simulations provide a very realistic user experience with a wide field of view, high resolution, higher updating rates (refresh rate), and high contrast.

Virtual Reality is the re-creation of the virtual environment, which we expose to our senses in the way the environment is experienced as a real and we get a sense of presence. It uses technologies that make it possible to achieve this goal, but at the same time, it is a complicated achievement that must take into account our perception and recognition. It can be used for entertainment or professionally. The future with the use of Virtual Reality becomes different and changes our perception of the world.