Mixed Realities

Reality is what we experience of the world as produced by our sensations, habits and mind. The readings this week covered the topic of reality and how virtual reality and augmented reality have become such an integral part of our everyday lives.

In recent years the sense of the word reality has been constantly changing as new meanings and terms associated with reality keep altering, due to the continual development of technology. Very basically, reality refers to the state of things as they exist. This includes anything that is observable or comprehensible and everything that has existed, exist or will exist. ‘The real’ refers to the world as it is, whether we can/choose to engage in it or not.

This means that virtual reality refers to computer-simulated environments that present a physical sort of ‘real’ presence in an imaginary world that is displayed through a computer screen or another equivalent. Virtual reality became very popular during the early 1990s due to the success and technological advancements in such films as The Matrix. It was this platform and rapid speed of technological progression that led to the development of further forms of this ‘replicated’ reality.

More recently, augmented reality is a further adaptation of virtual reality, which focuses more as a live and direct view of a physical ‘real-world’ whose elements are amplified by replica sensory inputs such as sound and graphics. In a sense it is the mergence of reality and virtual reality. A current example of this is the Google glass. Our sensations (touch, smell, hear, taste, speak) all play an integral part in our understanding and perception of reality. However, it has been in more recent times when our sensors have become more imperative, due to virtual and augmented reality and how we use it. This Google glass is a way in which reality and virtual reality is combined into one and is control through voice activation and movement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1uyQZNg2vE

It is through these everyday practices and technological devices that we can now choose to live our lives in a more ‘virtual’ way by accessing elements of technology and ‘reality’ that make the types of experiences we now have even more ‘real’ than they really are.