Augmented Reality (AR) – Addressing the Requirements of Immersive Experiences with AWS
In contrast to VR, AR doesn’t shut the real world out – it overlays virtual elements onto it. Through devices such as smartphones, AR glasses, or specialized heads-up displays, users can see and interact with virtual elements that appear to exist within their physical environment.
Examples of AR you are probably already familiar with include mobile apps that place furniture in your living room so that you can see how it would look, heads-up displays in cars that overlay directions, and online games such as Pokémon Go:
Figure 11.6 – Examples of devices used with AR
AR glasses
Smart glasses designed for AR have rapidly improved over the past decade. They work similarly to VR headsets but somehow need to allow you to see through them into the real world. This is known as passthrough. Passthrough is sometimes accomplished through the use of transparent lenses that the tiny monitors project onto. Other times, the glasses are opaque, and forward-facing high-resolution cameras are used to show the real world.
Some VR headsets have a passthrough mode via cameras, but it tends to be a secondary function. Passthrough on VR headsets is usually meant to be used to allow the user to temporarily view the real world in low resolution so that they can find a nearby physical object, after which they return to full VR mode. Therefore, be careful when shopping for a VR headset that you want to use as AR glasses.
The technical specifications for AR glasses are similar to those associated with VR headsets. However, because they do not shut out external light sources, the peak brightness (normally measured in nits) is a much larger concern. If the brightness of the projected virtual elements is low, they can be difficult to see when used outdoors.
As these are glasses, they need to be light. Therefore, few models run a local operating system directly in the glasses themselves. They normally offload rendering to the CPU and GPU in a nearby mobile phone or are tethered to their own small computer somewhere nearby (often called a base station or compute pack):
| Model Name | Resolution | Refresh | Peak Brightness | Price |
| Xreal Air 2 Pro | 1,920 x 1,080 | 120 Hz | 500 | $410 |
| Rokid Max | 1,920 x 1,080 | 120 Hz | 600 | $440 |
| Nreal Air | 1,920 x 1,080 | 60 Hz | 400 | $400 |
| Viture One | 1,920 x 1,080 | 60 Hz | 1800 | $480 |
| Huawei Vision | 1,920 x 1,080 | 60 Hz | 480 | $430 |
| Microsoft Hololens 2 | 1,440 x 936 | 60 Hz | 500 | $3,500 |
| Google Glass Enterprise 2 | 640 x 360 | 60 Hz | 300 | $1,000 |
Figure 11.7 – Comparison of AR glasses
Almost all AR glasses support 5G connectivity – if not directly, then through the mobile device they are tethered to.