augmented reality
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CT: Augmented reality (AR) is the integration of digital information with the user’s environment in real time. Unlike virtual reality (VR), which creates a totally artificial environment, AR users experience a real-world environment with generated perceptual information overlaid on top of it.

Augmented reality has a variety of uses, from assisting in the decision-making process to entertainment. AR is used to either visually change natural environments in some way or to provide additional information to users. The primary benefit of AR is that it manages to blend digital and three-dimensional (3D) components with an individual’s perception of the real world.

AR delivers visual elements, sound and other sensory information to the user through a device like a smartphone, glasses or a headset. This information is overlaid onto the device to create an interwoven and immersive experience where digital information alters the user’s perception of the physical world. The overlaid information can be added to an environment or mask part of the natural environment.

S: TechTarget (last access: 28 January 2026)

N: 1. – augmented (adj): c. 1600, “increased,” past-participle adjective from the verb “augment”. The musical sense of “greater by a semitone than a perfect or major interval” (opposite of diminished) is attested by 1825.

– reality (n): 1540s, “quality of being real,” from French réalité and directly Medieval Latin realitatem (nominative realitas), from Late Latin realis (see real (adj.)). Meaning “real existence, all that is real” is from 1640s; that of “the real state (of something)” is from 1680s. Sometimes 17c.-18c. also meaning “sincerity.” Reality-based attested from 1960. Reality television from 1991.

2. augmented reality, in computer programming, a process of combining or “augmenting” video or photographic displays by overlaying the images with useful computer-generated data. The earliest applications of augmented reality were almost certainly the “heads-up-displays” (HUDs) used in military airplanes and tanks, in which instrument panel-type information is projected onto the same cockpit canopy or viewfinder through which a crew member sees the external surroundings. Faster computer processors have made it feasible to combine such data displays with real-time video. Among the earliest and most prominent examples of this type of augmented reality, as first shown on the Fox Broadcasting Company’s network in the mid-1990s, were the yellow first-down stripes superimposed on television images of American gridiron football fields and the virtual flight paths added to help television viewers track the paths of hockey pucks and golf balls.

3. Augmented reality is commonly used in electronic first-person shooter games to add environmental, health, and other information to players’ viewpoints. (Various militaries have begun to experiment with adding similar overlays to real soldiers using personal head-mounted visors.) Augmented reality applications also have been developed for smartphones to display information such as building addresses, real estate signs, retail sales offers, and restaurant reviews on specific sites seen through the devices’ viewfinder or electronic displays. Such information may be supplied using a global positioning system (GPS) linked to a commercial or open-source database. Some visionaries hope to take the next step of adding such informational displays to lightweight sunglasses, and proponents of social networking envision all sorts of personal identification tags being added to such displays.

4. Information Technology (Informatics): augmented reality, AR.

  • Augmented reality (AR) is an experience where designers enhance parts of users’ physical world with computer-generated input. Designers create inputs … in digital content, which responds in real time to changes in the user’s environment, typically movement.

5. Do not confuse augmented reality (AR) with virtual reality (VR); they all have a lot to do with complex, multidisciplinary systems but they are not the same thing.

  • Virtual reality (VR) technology creates immersive three-dimensional simulations where users can interact with specialised equipment like headsets and sensor-fitted gloves. This cutting-edge technology is revolutionising various fields, including gaming, education, healthcare, and training simulations. It offers users a more realistic and interactive experience compared to traditional interfaces.
  • Augmented reality (AR) overlays computer-generated images and information onto the real world, typically viewed through the screen of a smartphone, tablet, or AR headset. Unlike virtual reality (VR), which replaces the real world with a simulated one, AR enhances the real world with digital information. It offers various applications in gaming, marketing, education, and training. For example, AR technology can enable the application of filters, lenses, and games like Pokemon Go, as well as retail features e.g. trying on glasses or visualising products in spaces e.g.trying out a chair in your lounge room.

6. Cultural Interrelation: We can mention the book Practical Augmented Reality: A Guide to the Technologies, Applications and Human Factors for Ar and Vr (Usability) (2017) by Steve Aukstakalnis Aukstakalnis.

S: 1. Etymonline – https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=augmented; https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=reality (last access: 29 January 2026). 2 & 3. EncBrit (last access: 29 January 2026). 4. TERMIUM PLUS (last access: 28 January 2026). 5. UQ (last access: 28 January 2026). 6. Amazon (last access: 21 January 2026).

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CR: artificial intelligence, computational intelligence, computer science, cyberspace, intelligent system, metaverse, virtual reality.