Over the years, Mixed Reality and various new technologies have transfigured the way we live and see the world. It has made our life faster, more comfortable, better, and more fun. These blessings in disguise are improving the way we live, with computers becoming an essential part of life. Numerous technologies, including Mixed Reality, have opened a whole new door to the digital world, completely changing the way we perceive it.
One of these technologies which have blurred outlines between the real and digital world is Mixed Reality Technology. The word Mixed Reality was introduced in a paper named “A Taxonomy of Mixed Reality Visual Displays” by Paul Milgram and Fumio Kishino in 1994. This paper explored the concepts of the virtuality continuum. Since then, this technology is always in the limelight, attracting enough attention.
Mixed Reality is one technology that is triumphantly breaking barriers between the human world and the digital world. It is the amalgamation of the real and virtual world. It is the new wave technology that combines both VR and AR experiences. Virtual objects are not only overlaid in this technology, but people can interact with these virtual objects depending on the environment that they are present. One can have an insight into both the world at the same time. The real and virtual worlds are treated like two faces of the same coin.
ENVIRONMENTAL INPUT
Computer interactions are often done using hardware devices like keyboard, mouse, touch, etc. The sensors’ advancements can interact with the computer in a far more ‘Human’ way. For this concoction of the real and virtual world to be successful, we have to consider the environmental input. Without the environment input, it is nearly impossible to achieve an authentic Mixed Reality experience. Along with human and computer interaction (HCI), understanding the environment is equally important.Movements and boundaries must be interpreted appropriately so that the quality is not compromised.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VR, AR, AND MR
Most of the people are often confused between VR, AR, and MR. All the mentioned technology revolves around the same idea of creating a pathway between the real and virtual world. But there are variations in how it opens up the barriers.
Virtual Reality:
Virtual Reality mainly focuses on tricking human senses and creating a complete virtual environment for humans to immerse themselves. There is no peek door through the real world as people are completely immersed in the virtual environment.
Augmented Reality:
Augmented Reality overlays virtual objects onto the real world. The environment is taken into consideration for the virtual items to be placed in the right positions.
Mixed Reality:
Mixed Reality not only overlay the virtual objects on to the real world, but it provides an opportunity to interact with the virtual objects. It blends the physical and virtual worlds.
There are two forms of reality technologies that make up Mixed Reality as a whole. The two ways are:
1. Mixed Reality starts with the real world: Here, the virtual objects are overlaid in the real world, and an opportunity to interact with these virtual objects is provided. In this case, the user remains in the real world and operates virtual items. This form of Mixed Reality can be considered as an advanced version of the Augmented Reality. This experience is achieved through Microsoft Hololens.
2. Mixed Reality starts with the virtual world: Here, the user is fully immersed in the virtual environment created. The digital objects are just overlapped over the real-world objects. Sounds similar to Virtual Reality, But in this form of Mixed Reality, the virtual environment is connected to the real world, unlike in Virtual Reality, which is not at all connected. Windows Mixed Reality headsets provide us with this form of experience.
FUTURE OF MIXED REALITY
Mixed Reality is the latest advancement when compared to Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. It has a tremendous potential in the future to rule all the domains due to its broad spectrum in the Virtuality Continuum. There is an increase in the adoption of Mixed Reality in architecture, which is currently in the industry trend. The global mixed reality market was valued at USD 382.6 million in 2019 and is expected to register a CAGR of 47.9% over the forecast period (2020-2025)
