At its most recent meetup, TechToronto invited Sulon CEO Dhan Balachand to explain the differences in augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality.
Balachand started his talk by explaining what mixed reality means, and how it differs from AR and VR technologies. “Reality is basically your real world. Augmented reality is where you take your real world and add virtual elements to it. Virtual reality is where you’re completely immersed…a virtualized version of your real world or a completely magical world of your dreams,” said Balachand. “Mixed reality does all of that in one complete experience and that’s pretty difficult to do.”
Once you go past mixed reality, the evolution of computing will start.
Balachand added how his team at Sulon has been striving to create this all-in-one mixed reality experience since its launch. In October 2016, the company demoed Sulon Q, an all-in-one headset that allows users explores virtual worlds in mixed reality in an experience called Magic Beans.
In Magic Beans, the demo starts in the actual room you’re in, until a giant beanstalk grows out of the floor and bursts through the ceiling. An angry giant then pulls you out of the real world and into a virtual world you haven’t seen before, showing how AR and VR can be experienced together.
“After you explore that environment, you can take a look down at the house that you came out of and see a part of your real world,” said Balachand. He adds that the application of mixed reality goes beyond diving into never-before-seen worlds, such as helping architects and homebuyers see the house they want to build on an empty plot of land.
According to Balachand, mixed reality is meant to create a seamless experience for its explorers, and the concept has infinite applications.
“It’s infinite because we naturally do a lot of our content and a lot of our consumption on 2D monitors, which are finite levels of boundaries,” said Balachand. “When you take that away and now you’re working in 3D, you have infinite possibilities. Now you’re literally boundless. You can experience anything you can pretty much fathom and that’s what mixed reality takes us to.”
But even though tech companies are exploring AR, VR, and mixed reality more and more, Balachand says there is a world to explore beyond that too.
“Once you go past mixed reality, the evolution of computing will start,” said Balachand. “Mixed reality is the backbone technology of the future of computing. It’ll allow us to digitally decorate our environment in any way we wish with any number of monitors, screens, and displays. From there, the future is pretty much endless.”
Watch the full presentation below:
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