Recently, there has been some major buzz about a trend known as
augmented reality (AR). While this trend is more well known in
the academic and marketing worlds, I think it is about to hit
mainstream, especially from a consumer basis. Augmented reality
is explained as “add[ing] information and meaning to a real
object or place. Unlike virtual reality, augmented reality does
not create a simulated reality. Instead, it takes a real object
or space and uses technologies to add contextual data to deepen
students’ (or in our case consumers’) understanding of it.” In
the past, the primary uses of augmented reality devices were
academic, research, military, architecture and science based.