Woohoo AR

• AR—You design for digital elements to appear over real-world views, sometimes with limited interactivity between them, often via smartphones. Examples include Apple’s ARKit and Android’s ARCore (developer kits), the Pokémon Go game.

• VR—You design immersive experiences that isolate users from the real world, typically via headset devices. Examples include PSVR for gaming, Oculus and Google Cardboard, where users can explore, e.g., Stonehenge using headset-mounted smartphones.
• MR—You design to combine AR and VR elements so digital objects can interact with the real world; therefore, you design elements that are anchored to a real environment. Examples include Magic Leap and HoloLens, which users can use, e.g., to learn more directly how to fix items.

Partly because of the slight overlap regarding interactivity, brands sometimes use AR interchangeably with MR. “Augmented reality” remains popular—despite the point that the original sense of AR design is overlaying digital elements upon real-world views: e.g., GPS filters/overlays on smartphone screens so users can find directions from street views. So, digital elements are merely superimposed on real-world views, not anchored directly to them: The computer-generated content can’t interact with the real-world elements users see—unlike in MR. The HoloLens is MR, for instance, because it interprets the space in a room and combines digital objects with the user’s physical environment.