Augmented Reality

[Anchor Lead]

Interest in augmented reality has grown in step with the soaring popularity of Pokémon Go. The technology is expected to evolve into a kind of mixed reality, where the boundaries of the real and virtual worlds are blurred.

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A huge whale suddenly jumps out of the gym floor. A person can walk on Mars and observe its lanscape. And even enter the world of a fairytale. All this is made possible by mixed reality or MR technology. The early stage of mixed reality involves integrating the technologies of augmented reality and virtual reality.

[Soundbite] Jo Ik-hwan(SKT Network IT Convergence R&D Center) : "Mixed reality can offer more vivid experience by combining the realness of AR and immersion of VR."

Mixed reality is reaction-type technology, which allows a user to wear a device to sense even a tactile input as well as see the virtual surroundings using a device. An example of MR is Microsoft's Holo Lens. This device brings a holographic image of a person in a remote location right in front of a user's eyes. They're even close enough to high five.

[Soundbite] Kim Young-wook(Microsoft Korea) : "MR technology doesn't stop at just showing a reality, but is capable of interactions using a person's actions or voice."

The augmented reality technology demonstrated in Pokemon Go is evolving into the realm of mixed reality, which takes down the barriers between the real world and virtual reality.