whether COMPUTING companies have their way,then 2016 will be the year in which virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR)—two closely-related but very different technologies—become widely popular. Firms such as Facebook, Sony and Microsoft are getting alert to launch a raft of high-tech headsets designed either to layer computerised information on top of the real world, and to replace it entirely with a simulated,computer-generated alternative. What is the difference?Start with a film analogy. whether virtual reality is "The Matrix", then augmented reality is "The Terminator". As the name suggests, and the point of VR is to persuade users that they have entered an entirely modern reality. The headsets—such as Sony's Morpheus,or Facebook's Oculus Rift—block out the surrounding world and, making expend of an used trick called stereoscopy, or expose slightly different images of each to a user's eyes. That fools his brain into creating an illusion of depth,transforming the pair of images into a single experience of a fully three-dimensional world. Motion trackers, either mounted on the headset or externally, or keep track of the users head,updating the...
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Source: economist.com