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is ready to insert an IV into your arm, the veins
(Continued from page 9)
in tales like Fibber McGee and Molly where we in your arms would be totally visible.
could listen and vividly imagine being right in
the McGee’s home. Then came movies, televi- AR technology is sometimes accomplished
sion, and gaming devices. These devices total- with goggles, like VR, but there are also AR
ly immersed us in their stories. applications that use lightweight glasses or par-
tial glasses. There are also small handheld AR
Now we have moved on even farther into other displays, digital AR projectors, and even con-
realities and amplified realities with two newer tact lenses that project AR information. Several
technologies: Virtual Reality (VR) and Aug- companies, including Google, are working on
mented Reality (AR). lasers that send information directly to the
eyes.
Virtual Reality Explained
Microsoft is working on a HoloLens AR headset
Virtual Reality replicates an environment that that will work with Windows 10. Google is still
lets you see and feel like you are in another working on their Google Glass project which
world. This is generally done by wearing gog- will now focus on the workplace.
gles which put a screen in front of your eyes to
show you that new world. Some of these VR With AR you can interact with it through gaze,
devices have built-in audio and vibrations and voice, and/or hand motions. If you saw the
other haptic feedback that help to make the movie Minority Report and remember Tom
new world feel quite real. Cruise moving information around in the air you
have seen an accurate depiction of an aug-
Many have immersive 360 degree visual capa- mented reality device.
bilities so you are completely surrounded by
the new world. Often you can interact with that When Minority Report came out in 2002, it was
new world as when you might play a VR game. very futuristic. Now that future is already here.
This new storytelling technique is totally immer-
sive since you are completely pulled into the
world inside the headset.

Dedicated VR devices started reaching the
market in 2016. Samsung and Oculus have re-
cently released their first everyday consumer
product, the Samsung Gear VR headset. At
$99 it is well-priced, but must be paired with a
newer Samsung Galaxy smartphone to make it
work. Other VR devices like the Oculus Rift and
the HTC Vive and start at $599 and require a
powerful PC to work. Sony will soon release
their PlayStation VR at $399.
Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality is another way to look at a
different world. Instead of replacing the current
reality with an alternate reality as VR does, AR
adds to our current reality. So with AR, you can
still see the real world around you, but certain
things in your world are augmented. With AR,
information about the real environment and its
objects is overlaid on the real world. For in-
stance, a nurse wearing a pair of AR glasses
would be able to see everything in the room
exactly as it really is. However, when he or she

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