Augmented reality is a direct or indirect view of a physical surrounding whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input. These sensory inputs may be either sound video or any data. AR can be associated to a broader concept called mediated reality. In Mediated reality a view of reality is modified by a computer. As an outcome, the technology operates by enhancing one’s current perception of reality. By contrast, virtual reality substitutes the real world with an assumed one.
Augmentation is conventionally in real-time context with environmental elements, such as sports scores on TV during a match. With the help of advanced AR technology the data about the surrounding real world of the user becomes interactive and digitally manipulable. Artificial information about the environment and its objects can be overlaid on the real world.
Augmented Reality is considered an extension of Virtual Reality. Virtual Reality is a virtual space in which players immerse themselves into that space and exceed the bounds of physical reality. In virtual reality, time, physical laws and substantial properties may no more be thought of as true, in contrast to the real-world environment.
An important step of AR systems is how realistically they incorporate augmentations with the real world. The software must deduce real world coordinates independent from the camera images. That process is called image registration. Image registration uses several methods of computer vision, mostly related to video tracking. Many computer vision methods of augmented reality are inherited from visual odometry.
