What is augmented reality or AR?

AR vs. virtual reality vs. mixed reality vs. extended reality

In the recent growth of types of virtual realities, it can be challenging to keep up because of their subtle differences. The types of digital realities are:

As all technologies blur the lines between reality, determining a suitable use case for your business is crucial. For many businesses, AR is usually the easiest to integrate into the company’s processes.

Types of augmented reality

In deciding which type of AR technology you’ll need for your business, you’ll first have to determine what kind of AR to use. There are two types of augmented reality: marker-based and marker-less. Choosing one of these types of AR will determine how you’ll be able to display your images and information.

Marker-based AR is created using image recognition to identify objects already programmed into your AR device or application. When placing objects in view as points of reference, they can help your AR device determine the position and orientation of the camera. This is generally achieved by switching your camera to grayscale and detecting a marker to compare that marker with all the others in its information bank. Once your device finds a match, it uses that data to mathematically determine the pose and place the AR image in the right spot.

Marker-less AR is more complex as there’s no point in which your device will focus on. Because of this, your device must recognize items as they appear in view. Using a recognition algorithm, the device will look for colors, patterns, and similar features to determine what that object is and then, using time, accelerometer, GPS, and compass information, it will or orient itself and use a camera to overlay an image of whatever you’d like within your real-world surroundings.

How augmented reality works

Augmented reality creates an immersive experience for all its users. Though the most common AR forms are through glasses or a camera lens, interest in AR is growing, and businesses are showcasing more types of lenses and hardware through the marketplace. There are five significant components of AR:

1. Artificial intelligence. Most augmented reality solutions need artificial intelligence (AI) to work, allowing users to complete actions using voice prompts. AI can also help process information for your AR application.
2. AR software. These are the tools and applications used to access AR. Some businesses can create their own form of AR software.
3. Processing. You’ll need processing power for your AR technology to work, generally by leveraging your device’s internal operating system.
4. Lenses. You’ll need a lens or image platform to view your content or images. The better quality your screen is, the more realistic your image will appear.
5. Sensors. AR systems need to digest data about their environment to align the real and digital worlds. When your camera captures information, it sends it through software for processing.

Integrating AR into your employee training and education

In the workplace, adding augmented reality to your processes and procedures can help enhance the learning and comprehension benefits for your employees. AR training is an educational experience presented through the software on AR devices to help employees gain critical professional skills. This type of training experience can be launched at any time, any place with the right software.

AR can also help guide and support employees regardless of their location, leading to better collaboration and safer working conditions in your fields. By enhancing traditional learning methods, this method can offer more information for better comprehension. Some ways your team could use AR would be:

Besides industry-specific uses, many industries currently use AR apps to identify, track, and resolve technical issues. It can also help in other non-physical procedure cases like for marketing as a advertising, entertainment, and events tool by allowing users to get information simply through their phones.

Get to work with an AR tool that guides you and your team

As your team moves to integrate technology into your workflow and processes, adding an augmented reality solution can improve your business’s overall productivity while maximizing efficiencies using data-driven insights.

Dynamics 365 Guides incorporates AR to help you solve problems in real-time. With the ability to adapt by using training guides for training or day-to-day processes, you’re able to solve problems quickly and optimize your operations with on-the-job guidance.