Mixed Reality – what it is?

We talked about VR and AR. Now, think of MR as a hybrid of VR and AR. Using MR, a user can view the real world just like in AR, but can also view virtual objects as in VR. The difference with MR is that those virtual objects are referenced or anchored with the real space. That means that the virtual object is interacting within the real world.

For example, suppose you have a physically real table in front of you, and now using MR you are viewing a virtual ball; if you drop a virtual ball object on a table, in MR, that virtual ball will interact with the physical table. This means that it will bounce on the physical table, and roll off from the table to the ground.

The immersive experience of the virtual world with the real world is so strong in MR that it is very hard to break that illusion.

At the time of writing this book, there are very few MR devices available on the market; Microsoft HoloLens is one of them. This book is focused on developing the MR experience, using HoloLens.