Augmented Reality vs Virtual Reality

In today's world, we can see that Virtual and Augmented realities have become famous and booming. They have a significant impact on many fields like medical, engineering etc. Virtual Realities also provides a lot of social space to interact with new people, find communities and make new connections. They have opened new avenues to business and trade. But while Virtual Reality has been ahead, Augmented Reality is yet to pick up that pace.

One of the reasons why Augmented Reality isn't famous yet is probably because right now, Virtual Reality is more entertaining and gives a more authentic experience in a virtual world. To get that experience in AR, we need to be able to have wearable devices rather than AR from mobile phones or any other device. But this alternative is costly right now. While we have much cheaper Virtual Reality devices right now, like Oculus Quests, which costs lesser than 400$, AR wearable devices efficiently cost around 1000$. Due to this stark difference would take a lot of time for AR to be more prevalent. However, AR from mobile devices are pretty standard now, and that might be more usable at present and could be more commonly used than VR. We already have Pokemon Go as an example of how AR has caught a lot of attention.

On the other hand, if AR wearable Technology improves to an extent where their field of view is better than current standards, and if their prices drop, AR has a more substantial chance of being the future. While VR does provide access to a whole new world, if we need to use it in the workplace, it is not comfortable to spend our time in the virtual space to accomplish tasks while not being aware of the actual surroundings. Let's consider the scenario of remote work. While being in VR might help meet colleagues, actually doing the work in VR is quite challenging. VR devices are also quite heavy and cause nausea. Whereas, if AR improves, we will be able to use AR more frequently. Also, navigation is much easier in AR than in VR. AR can have a lot more applications in future. Consider having AR windows in the cars while helping in navigation; this is a natural environment usage, whereas, for using VR, you will need to be in a stationary environment.

AR does seem to have more applications than VR, and for the same reason, AR might be the future of technology. However, with the current wide applications of VR and new devices with both AR and VR implementation, VR and AR would co-exist and serve their purposes.