Mixed Reality (MR); is an overlay of synthetic content that is anchored to and interacts with objects in the real world—in real time. Mixed Reality experiences exhibit occlusion, in that the computer-generated objects are visibly obscured by objects in the physical environment.
The Opportunity:While mixed reality offers many design challenges, and much progress is needed concerning platforms that host and support it, there is a tremendous opportunity to bring a diversity of experiences and display methods to audiences through MR. That should mean more content can reach and serve a broader range of people, including those who do not find traditional VR or AR relevant to their abilities, comfort, taste or budgets.
'Mixed reality' has seen very broad usage as a marketing term, and many alternative definitions co-exist today, some encompassing AR experiences, or experiences that move back and forth between VR and AR. However, the definition above is increasingly emerging as the agreed meaning of the term.
Mixed reality (MR) is the merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualizations, where physical and digital objects co-exist and interact in real time. Mixed reality does not exclusively take place in either the physical or virtual world, but is a hybrid of reality and virtual reality, encompassing both augmented reality and augmented virtuality via immersive technology.
A mixed reality experience is one that seamlessly blends the user’s real-world environment and digitally-created content, where both environments can coexist and interact with each other. It can often be found in VR experiences and installations and can be understood to be a continuum on which pure VR and pure AR are both found.
Virtual Reality (VR) encompasses all immersive experiences. These could be created using purely real-world content as 360 Video production, purely synthetic content (Computer Generated), or a hybrid of both.
Extended Reality (XR) refers to all real-and-virtual environments generated by computer technology and wearables. The 'X' in XR is a variable that can stand for any letter. Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality are not interchangeable terms. The general distinction is: all MR is AR, but not all AR is MR. AR is a composite. MR is interactive.
Augmented Reality (AR) is an overlay of computer generated content on the real world that can superficially interact with the environment in real-time. With AR, there is no occlusion between CG content and the real-world.