What is mixed reality?

Mixed reality basically describes the mixing of the “real” and “virtual” worlds through the use of elec­tron­ic devices. The term “mixed reality” is closely related to the term “augmented reality”. These terms are fre­quent­ly used in­ter­change­ably. The concept of mixed reality has gained new pop­u­lar­i­ty through its use by Microsoft in its “Windows Mixed Reality” product range.

According to this model, mixed reality is every­thing that does not belong 100% to the “real en­vi­ron­ment” and is also not 100% virtual. The real en­vi­ron­ment on the one side and the virtual en­vi­ron­ment on the other con­sti­tute the extreme poles in this model – anything that lies between them and contains both elements is es­sen­tial­ly mixed reality. The blending within mixed reality is seamless. The amount of “real” and “virtual” elements in a mixed-reality ap­pli­ca­tion is different in every case.

As pre­vi­ous­ly mentioned, the terms mixed reality and augmented reality are often used in­ter­change­ably. According to the original de­f­i­n­i­tion, though, mixed reality covers sig­nif­i­cant­ly more aspects than augmented reality, in that it em­pha­sizes the interplay between reality and virtual objects. As a result, objects and/or subjects in the real world can interact with objects and/or subjects in the virtual world. For example, if you were to place a virtual object on a real table, mixed reality ap­pli­ca­tions would register this event and then move the virtual element along with the table if you were to move it. Normal augmented reality apps do not react to such changes, meaning the virtual object then typically either floats in the air or dis­ap­pears al­to­geth­er.

Mixed reality is already being used in a wide variety of sectors today – in gaming and in online shops as well as in both industry and military affairs. In many cases, however, the apps being used are just AR apps which only allow real and virtual reality to interact in a limited number of ways. Mixed reality will play a sig­nif­i­cant­ly more decisive role in future apps.

Some examples of potential and current mixed reality ap­pli­ca­tions include:

• Mobile games: The real en­vi­ron­ment is recorded by cameras on tablets and smart­phones as a basis for the game. On our screens, we see game char­ac­ters, objects, and so on embedded in the “real” world. The real en­vi­ron­ment is mixed with the virtual world on-screen in a way that the virtual elements react directly in relation to the cir­cum­stances.
• Online shops for furniture retailers: A smart­phone camera records an image of a certain room. A virtual piece of furniture, such as a couch, is then virtually added as a three-di­men­sion­al object into the shot. This allows a client using the online shop to imagine what the couch would look like in their room, sim­pli­fy­ing the purchase decision. However, the in­ter­ac­tiv­i­ty of many current apps still has a lot of room for im­prove­ment.
• Online shops for eyewear retailers: A camera takes a picture of a client’s face. The client then chooses a frame and can view what the glasses would look like on them on their screen. The client’s real face is mixed with the virtual model of the glasses.

In the e-commerce sector, mixed reality ap­pli­ca­tions offer a wide range of pos­si­bil­i­ties to provide added value for the shopping ex­pe­ri­ence. The more realistic and per­son­al­ized the intended use of a product can be conveyed, the higher the customer’s trust, which increases the pos­si­bil­i­ty of them making a purchase. Mixed reality can convey a shopping ex­pe­ri­ence when customers use tablets, smart­phones, or computers to simulate the ex­pe­ri­ence of entering a real shop – and could even surpass it in some ways. In­for­ma­tion about what you need to look out for when creating an online shop can be found in our article “Setting up an online store – the basics”.

Microsoft has given a boost to the idea of mixed reality with Windows 10. The company now offers an entire range of different ap­pli­ca­tions under the “Windows Mixed Reality” section. The product range is based on the reality-vir­tu­al­i­ty continuum depicted above and is critical of the fact that most augmented reality ap­pli­ca­tions only use a very small portion of the “mixed reality spectrum” – and that, due to in­ad­e­quate tech­nol­o­gy, many of the pos­si­bil­i­ties that the mixing of real and virtual en­vi­ron­ments opens up are left unused. The video clip below provides a good idea of the approach that Microsoft is taking in relation to the concept of mixed reality:

According to Microsoft, Windows 10 was also designed with the aim of making greater use of the diverse pos­si­bil­i­ties of mixed reality. Microsoft dif­fer­en­ti­ates between holo­graph­ic and immersive devices in regard to its hardware for mixed reality ap­pli­ca­tions:

Microsoft believes that the dif­fer­ence between holo­graph­ic and immersive devices will be replaced by a com­bi­na­tion of both ap­proach­es in the future.