Always wanted to know what it would be like to watch a TV talkshow in the studio? Or zoom in on a particular player in a Bundesliga game rather than see a wideshot of the field? The technology is there for such "live" 3D television experiences from the comfort of your home, according to the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute, one of many exhibitors at Berlin's mega consumer electronics show IFA touting the latest in virtual and augmented reality technology.
From VR headsets and 360-degree cameras to AR glasses, tech giants like Samsung, Qualcomm and Acer are offering visitors a glimpse of reality-altering experience. Don a pair of VR glasses at Fraunhofer's stand and you are plunged straight into a TV talkshow. Turn your head to the left to see the crew filming the presenter, while on the right, there are spectators sitting next to you and beyond, the producer with her clipboard. Look up and you see the studio lights. With its OmniCam-360, the institute has filmed live events that can be replayed back in 3D mode by a viewer wearing VR goggles. "You can feel the roar of the crowd in the stadium, or see what the television crew is doing, it's the live experience," said Fraunhofer HHI's spokesman Andre Groeger.
The year for VR -Goldman Sachs predicted earlier this year that the virtual reality and augmented reality markets will reach $80 billion by 2025. The difference between the two is that while virtual reality blocks the user's view of the real world through special glasses, augmented reality blends real life with virtual reality. At German optical giant Zeiss' stand, senior product manager Franz Troppenhagen is showing off the company's new VR headset to curious visitors. "Since 2016, the market has really started to grow because people are now seeing the benefits of using VR," he told AFP. One key factor is the increasing popularity of 360-degree cameras, which are allowing people to take 3D "panorama pictures while on vacation," he said, adding that the images can be easily shared with friends.
A few halls down, a man was waving his arms around, trying to catch avatars on a screen in front of him -- giving a glimpse of what a living room could look like once augmented reality invades. Marek Maciejewski, product development director at Chinese TV maker TCL, said the AR game was just one example of how screens would be used in the future. "In the next five to eight years, you will look at the screen, which will be on your wall, and you won't be able to tell if it is reality or the screen," he said.
If VR is seeing a boom in 2016, AR is only in its nascent stages of development, even if Pokemon Go has given a foretaste of the potential of the market. The AR gaming app has been a runaway hit, sending millions of people across the world into the streets to catch digital monsters. While many VR headsets can also be used with AR apps, industry experts believe that as the sectors mature, manufacturers will develop distinct gadgets for each area.
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VR vs AR vs MR
• Virtual reality is the umbrella term for all immersive experiences, which could be created using purely real-world content, purely synthetic content or a hybrid of both
• 360° video is an immersive experience using pre-filmed real-world content as the central media. 360° video is a version of VR created with only real-world content.
• Augmented reality is an overlay of content on the real world, but that content is not anchored to or part of it. The real-world content and the CG content are not able to respond to each other.
• Mixed reality is an overlay of synthetic content on the real world that is anchored to and interacts with the real world”picture surgeons overlaying virtual ultrasound images on their patient while performing an operation, for example. The key characteristic of MR is that the synthetic content and the real-world content are able to react to each other in real time.
• However, of all the realities, mixed reality seems like the furthest from fruition.
