The Academic Blog Post 11
Exploring Extended Reality (XR) Technologies
Figure 1: XR Technologies
VR, AR, and MR together substitute the term Extended Reality (XR), which breaks the divisions into fully immersive and partially immersive and partially immersive technologies. XR transforms spaces to allow users to engage with the real and virtual environment either complementation each other or being nearly indistinguishable. Embeddings are fundamental to ER technologies which provide psychological interactions where the user feels like they are inside the virtual environment. Marie-Laure Ryan while defining immersion in 2003 notes that immersion is not interaction, which is about how a user feels. One of the recent films that effectively describe the XR-like environments that confine people to a hyperreal is the two “The Matrix” from 1999. XR is especially taking root in video games.
In “Half-Life- In “Alyx” (2020) narrative is executed in a unique way because the game is totally dependent on the technology VR, which enables the used to use into the world of games and in the environment. “Pokemon GO,” which was released in 2016, is one of the best examples of AR because the real-life incidents are overlaid with imaginary characters the pockets monsters known as Pokemon with real-world knowledge made to reach via various player interfaces. This brings us to Baudrillard’s (1988) hyper-reality where simulation is even more real compared to the so-called real thing.
Figure 2: AR Interaction in Pokémon GO
Features that are portrayed in movies such as “Ready Player One” (2018) are total immersion of people in the world of extended reality, in which life in the real world will be embedded in VR. According to McLuhan's (1964) theories of media, XR is viewed as the extension of the human sensorium that increases sensory involvement beyond what is possible within the physical world due to multipoint engagement of interactions and senses (Kumaragurubaran T et al., 2023).
Steam. (2020). Half-Life: Alyx. Official Page. Retrieved from https://www.xrtech.global/.
Pokémon. (n.d.). Pokémon GO. Official Website. Retrieved from https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-video-games/pokemon-go.
Kumaragurubaran T, Devi, M. V., SenthilPandi, S., & Tharun, M. (2023). Exploring Extended Reality (XR) in the Workplace - Applications, Challenges: Survey. IEEE. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1109/rmkmate59243.2023.10369447.
