Wednesday, September 16, 2015
XR - EXTENDED REALITY (XR = VR + AR + MR + ...) SOME VARIATIONS ON REALITY ...
Reality has many flavors: Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality, even actual, real reality. There are many variations, depending on the project, and on what sensors you are using for input (for example, keyboard, tapping a mouse button or mouse pad, gaze, game controller, camera, microphone, distance sensor, etc) and for output (imaging system, audio system, physical/haptic feedback, and so on).
It seems to me that it is not productive anymore to try to confine or define most projects as just belonging to AR or VR (or MR or ….)
I propose the term XR (eXtended Reality) to be a broad term that includes any variant of the way or ways we are perceiving reality.
(Fancy digression: It is worth noting that even the ordinary reality we perceive every day is markedly different from the actual “reality” that goes on under the surface. For example, we may see a lamp on a table top, but actually we are just sensing photons bouncing off - or being radiated by - something which is a quantum probability cloud of “tiny” atoms and electrons. The world is not even “really” 3 dimensional. Aside from the fourth dimension of time, and the possibility of hidden dimensions suggested by (untested, but promising) theories, the basic constituents of atoms - electrons, protons, and neutrons - have spin ½; but we only see photons, which have spin one. Integer spin is necessary for living in a 3 dimensional rotational world. Half integer spin lives in a space which is not ordinary Euclidean 3 dimensions. If we could “see” electrons and their spin state, we would live in a reality quite different from our rotational 3 dimensions.)
(Another digression: animals with poor eyesight and extra sensitive smell probably live in a world whose “reality“is also quite different from ours.)
Here’s a list of some flavors of reality, followed by a discussion of what they (might?) mean.
XR – Extended Reality
VR – Virtual Reality
AR – Augmented Reality
MR – Mixed Reality
SR – Simulated Reality
GR – Guided Reality
FR – Fake Reality
IR – Imaginary Reality
RR – Real Reality
OR – Ordinary Reality
BR – Bad Reality
TR – TeleReality
CR – Chat Reality
PR – Physical Reality
HR – Haptic Reality
5R – 5 senses Reality
WR - Wearenhanced Reality
NR - Neuro Reality
PR – Portable Reality
$R - Expensive Reality
ΩR – Complete Reality
XR – eXtended Reality
• My general term for all variants of “reality”.
VR – Virtual Reality
• When the experience is not real, but is created to seem “real” through sensory perceptions created by the system. (eg Oculus Rift with no camera on it)
AR – Augmented Reality
• When the primary experience is the real world, but additional information is added to augment the real world experience.
MR – Mixed Reality
• When the experience is a mixture of the real world and additional sensations. (eg Hololens)
SR – Simulated Reality
• When a whole world is created to seem as if it is the real world. (eg THE MATRIX)
GR – Guided Reality
• When the experience is created to move the user in a particular way. (eg INCEPTION)
FR – Fake Reality
• An experience which is quite different from what it seems to be. (eg THE SIXTH SENSE)
IR – Imaginary Reality
• An experience which is immersive, but fanciful and not at all “real”. (eg A VR cartoon)
RR – Real Reality
• The underlying actual real reality. (Nobody knows.)
OR – Ordinary Reality
• The way everything seems. (Everybody knows. Duh.)
BR – Bad Reality
• A project which is internally inconsistent and seems “false”. (eg A bad movie adapted badly for VR)
TR – TeleReality
• When the sensory inputs come from a distant location. (eg Teleconferencing with VR)
CR – Chat Reality
• When the experience is social, but with possibly artificial personas. (eg CAPRICA; also ALTVR)
PR – Physical Reality
• A physical instantiated avatar (or robot) sends back the experience. (eg AVATAR; also drones with first person viewing)
HR – Haptic Reality
• When the experience comes from the sense of touch. (eg Haptic gloves)
5R – 5 senses Reality
• An experience that uses the five major senses – sight, sound, taste, touch, smell (eg Ordinary reality)
WR - Wearenhanced Reality
• Add wearable sensors that monitor, for example, bodily position and internal health parameters in constructing the experience. (eg PrioVR)
NR – Neuro Reality
• Add (non-invasive) neurosensing and transmitting to the other senses. (eg. Animals or people controlling a remote robot with a neurosensing cap; also Emperor Ming and Flash Gordon)
PR – Portable Reality PR – Portable Reality
• An experience in which the user is free to move. (eg Project Tango)
$R - Expensive Reality
• An experience created with unlimited resources. (NASA rehearsals for space trips and space walks)
ΩR – Complete Reality
• Everything. (???)
For other uses of “XR”, please see:
Labels: AR, Augmented Reality, eXtended Reality, Mixed Reality, MR, Virtual Reality, VR, XR
