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Issue 107

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With the mixed AR and VR market being projected at a dizzying $108 billion, a further $83bn is expected to go to AR in 2021. Although many have written about the business pivots and fails that have notably contributed to this previously unexpected change in the "reality" landscape, it is interesting to lift the veil and trace the links between a technology's success, and our own human needs. Simply put, AR augments our own reality while VR replaces it. Although both layering and replacing our reality both have their place in our lives, the AR can be useful to us at a greater number of points throughout our day. Where VR might immerse us in a tantalising porn fantasy or a terrifying video game, AR can help us choose healthier groceries, try on clothes or redesign our living room without leaving the sofa. It isn't that VR is becoming increasingly redundant but rather that our day-to-day has less space for a replacer technology than one that enhances our world. As humans, we've been augmenting reality since organised civilisations came to being. Ancient Egyptian women wore kohl to augment the shape of their eyes and we have only delved further into this concept with the eye-watering range of cosmetics. While fashion seeks to enhance the body and brands use Photoshop to push societal ideals of perfection to unattainable heights. Augmentation is far from a new concept; just because it is facilitated through digital technologies does not make it inherently different on a human level. The truth is a simple one (for once), it is more exciting to overlay than it is to replace. Augmentation has a bigger role to play in helping us navigate our lives. AR allows us to experience our world in new ways, far more often than virtual reality, which affords us the ability to step into an entirely fabricated one. And that's why it won. ISSUE 107 / 2018 TECHNOLOGY What was only hypothesized a mere two years ago is now accepted as conventional wisdom - augmented reality is winning out over virtual reality. 16 WHY AR BEAT VR

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