There are two ways of getting inside a screen and two ways of bringing the screen into the real world. Virtual reality envelops you completely, with goggles that block your field of view to immerse you in a digital world. Augmented reality, by contrast, doesn’t take you out of your surroundings: what it does is add layers of information on top of what you already see. They’re cousins, but they’re used for very different things and both are living through a decisive moment.
Living inside the screen
When you put on virtual reality goggles, the real world disappears. Lenses placed in front of your eyes show two slightly different images, which your brain interprets as a three-dimensional scene. You move your head and the image turns with you; you reach out your hand and two controllers turn that gesture into an action inside the game or the application.
For years this experience had a problem: it was expensive and bulky, and came with the famous motion sickness. Modern goggles have redistributed that weight between the head and the rest of the body, and the new high-frequency panels refresh the image so quickly that the brain barely notices the lag between what you see and what’s really happening. The result: much longer and more pleasant sessions.
Use far beyond the video game
Games were the first showcase, but they’re only the beginning. Engineers have spent years testing a prototype in virtual reality before building it in metal, which saves materials and money. Trainers of pilots, drivers and surgeons train with situations that would be impossible or dangerous to recreate live. And the entertainment industry uses it to bring music, film and sport closer to audiences who can’t afford to travel to a stadium.
Healthcare is another of the great beneficiaries: people suffering from intense pain sometimes tolerate treatments better if their mind is occupied in a virtual world, a technique already applied in some hospitals to reduce patients’ discomfort.
Information stuck to the real world
Augmented reality works in the opposite direction. Instead of isolating you, it builds on what you already see to give it context. You point your phone’s camera at a piece of furniture and the app shows you how it would look in your living room. Repair apps point out the exact screw you have to turn. And in a navigation app, the arrows walk along the actual street instead of making you look at a map.
The most spectacular promise is that of the smart glass: everyday goggles that, without dazzling you, project alerts, translations or directions in front of your eyes. Glassmakers and tech companies have spent years wrestling with the battery, the weight and the price, but the latest steps have been concrete, and some see this type of glasses as the next big device we’ll all use.
The same starting point
Although each has its reason for being, both share several advances. Both depend on very efficient screens, powerful image-processing chips and artificial intelligence, which helps recognise space and objects to attach the digital convincingly. And both highlight the same challenge: making the experience so comfortable and cheap that people use it daily, not just from time to time.
Virtual and augmented don’t compete; they complement each other. The first transports you to another place; the second shows you yours in a new way. When both finally develop fully, the line between what is real and what is digital will become, for the user, fuzzier than we imagine. And that isn’t a disadvantage: it’s an advantage. And the two, together, are drawing the screen of the future, which will no longer be in front of you, but around you and over the world you live in.
