When virtual reality was introduced, it made quite a stir: with virtual reality it was possible to simulate a real life situation and create a situation that was almost the same as the one people would have to face in real life. This basically changed everything: the pilots could now get trained in simulated environment and the training institutions did not have to employ the scarce and expensive resources, and most of all the risk was minimized. While sitting in a cubicle, the pilots would go through all kinds of different real life simulations, learn well and then apply them. This method has become immensely popular today and is being widely used for a variety of purposes. But if that sounds amazing to you, you just wait until you hear about the thing that we are going to talk about today: augmented reality.

The thing about augmented reality is that it takes the idea of virtual reality quite a few steps further. The idea behind it is still the same: make the situations appear as close to real life as they can be, but with augmented reality this seems much more believable. Virtual reality basically made use of several gadgets that allowed the people who were participating in the simulation feel, see and hear things that basically represented the real life situation that was being simulated. With augmented reality, you can do so much more.

So what basically happens in augmentation? When we talk about augmented reality we literally mean that the reality is a little transformed. In this process, a real word example is taken, and on it graphics, audio, smell, feel and other sensory enhancements are basically superimposed. The televisions have been using the principle of superimposition for a while, but now efforts are being put to make augmented reality into something that will transform the way we see things. This means that the next generation television systems will be powerful tools that will be using augmented reality and they will be able to make such progress that graphics will be viewed from each person’s perspective. This was deemed impossible before now, and even today it does sound a little unbelievable but the scientists are working hard on it and we will soon have these systems done. Just imagine the view, and the power that the technology will give to the viewers.

Currently augmented reality is mainly being used in video games, and such games have made quite an impression on their users. In the relative future, even these games will grow advanced and this means that the users will be able to enjoy a gaming environment that will make use of all their senses, and they will be dragged in the world of gaming, and get all the thrill and excitement that is associated with real world gaming. The best part is all this happens without them having to do anything. This is certainly a commendable advancement in technology.