Monday, November 14, 2016

Virtual Reality vs. Augmented Reality

 



Bill Malloy currently serves as co-founder and investor of Sway Ventures in San Francisco, California. President and board member of family-owned Malloy & Company, Bill Malloy possesses an active interest in new technology, specifically virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).

Both VR and AR use digitally constructed worlds, or realities, primarily for entertainment; however, the two concepts are far from identical. VR creates an entirely separate world in which users cannot or do not distinguish between reality and their artificial setting. To access VR, users must typically don special helmets, headsets, or goggles. Examples of VR technology include the Oculus Rift and the Nintendo Virtual Boy.

In contrast, AR is more of an amalgamation of reality and the virtual world, in which users can clearly distinguish the artificial from the real. AR is typically accessed through smart phone apps and uses smart phone cameras to add an artificial element to reality. An example of this would be Pokémon GO, a game in which users capture Pokémon in the real world through their smart phone cameras.