Engineering.com (02/27/21) Sahota, Raji

Virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality are likely to transform live events, thanks to increasingly affordable hardware. Professional basketball, hockey, racing and baseball leagues are already broadcasting in VR, and many content creators and engineers are developing next-generation live VR/AR entertainment. Whereas VR offers a fully immersive artificial environment, AR superimposes virtual images on real-world objects. Mixed reality stems from the intersection of human-computer interaction like voice and skeletal tracking, computer input such as sensors and processing, and environmental inputs like the positioning of people, surfaces and objects in the real world. Mixed-reality hardware includes holographic devices, which impose digital content in the real world, and immersive devices, which cover up the physical world and replace it with a digital experience. "That's what's meant by mixed reality, mixing your real environment with holographic [three-dimensional] data that's interactive and talking to you versus VR where you put the headset on and ... you can't see your real world but you're in an immersive environment," says Denise White, founder and CEO of BLANK XR. Meanwhile, a recent Consumer Technology Association survey found that consumers are seeking more VR content for concerts, sports and exercises.

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