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Augmented Reality Systems

Augmented reality (AR) overlays computer-generated imagery onto the real world, distinguishing it from virtual reality's fully simulated environments. AR runs across devices ranging from dedicated headsets to smartphones and is used across gaming, healthcare, education, and real estate.

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About this video

Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that superimposes computer-generated imagery over a real-world environment, enhancing what users see rather than replacing it entirely. This distinguishes AR from virtual reality, which immerses users in a fully simulated, separate environment. The real world serves as the foundation in AR, with digital elements added on top to create a composite experience. Delivery methods vary by device: optical see-through headsets and glasses allow users to view the physical world directly while digital content is overlaid on the lenses, while phone-based and some headset systems use a camera to capture the environment and then render additional imagery on top of that feed. Current commercial hardware supporting AR includes the Meta Quest 3 and the Apple Vision Pro, with Meta OS and visionOS serving as their respective operating system platforms. Use cases extend well beyond entertainment, encompassing healthcare, real estate, education, and productivity applications, though gaming and consumer entertainment currently represent the largest share of adoption. Notable advantages include a more natural sense of spatial presence and reduced motion sickness compared to fully immersive VR, since the real-world visual reference remains consistent and delays are minimal. Key drawbacks include the relatively high cost of capable hardware and broader concerns around extended use, including potential for habitual overuse and general eye or physical fatigue.

What you'll learn

What's covered

Augmented Reality

Aligned to

CompTIA Tech+
2.6 Compare and contrast common computing devices and their purposes.
Cisco CCST IT
4.4 Describe virtualization and cloud terminology

Key terms

Virtual Reality
VR
An immersive, computer-generated environment experienced through a head-mounted display and motion sensors. Requires significant CPU, GPU, and memory resources to render in real time.
Augmented Reality
AR
A technology that overlays computer-generated imagery onto the real world, viewable through headsets, glasses, or mobile devices.
Common Gateway Interface
CGI
Common Gateway Interface is a standard protocol for web servers to execute external programs; legacy CGI scripts are a known attack surface, with vulnerabilities such as Shellshock enabling remote code execution through crafted HTTP requests.
Head-Mounted Display
HMD
A wearable headset device used to view augmented or virtual reality content, such as the Meta Quest 3 or Apple Vision Pro.
Motion Sickness
A health concern associated with VR use where conflicting sensory signals cause nausea, dizziness, or disorientation.

Topics

Augmented Reality Virtual Reality Ar Headsets Mixed Reality Emerging Technologies Ar Use Cases

Transcript

Virtual reality allows us to interact with a simulated world, where we're inside some other world. Augmented reality is somewhat similar, except we utilize the outside world — that is, the real world — but we are augmenting it, or adding to it. That's what augmented reality is.

Augmented reality can look a little different depending on what device you're using. There are some headset versions of this, or you could even use your phone, and there are a couple of different ways that this can happen. Number one, if we're using something like glasses or a headset, you could actually see through the glasses and headset and see the real world, but then it's going to overlay something over the top of it. That's one way. Or, with something like your phone or some systems, what they'll do is use a camera to portray the outside world, but then inside your headset it will overlay some extra detail on it.

So what is augmented reality? It's computer generated imagery that goes over the top, superimposed over the top of real life, of what is happening in real life.

Devices, operating systems and applications

Some vendors that will actually produce these: the new Quest 3 has some capabilities of this, and the Apple Vision Pro. A lot of the purpose of it is gaming and entertainment, although there are other purposes as well. For OS examples, Meta OS or visionOS are some examples of that.

For standard apps: games, healthcare, real estate, education. Those are some of the applications that we're using it for now. It's a very immersive experience and very entertaining, although there are some productivity apps that are out there as well for this.

Drawbacks

They can tend to be a little more costly, although I'll show you just something you could use with your phone. Then the same thing with health concerns and addictions. There are some concerns over motion sickness, although you don't get motion sickness as bad with this, because it's showing you the real world and should be mostly one for one, with no delay with it.

An example

Here's an example of it. I put a dinosaur in my room, so you can see that I just have my regular room and it's showing the regular room, although it's superimposed this dinosaur on it. I don't really have a dinosaur there, so it's just showing this, and then I can kind of move it around and see different aspects of this.

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