Everyone gets excited when there is a new take-off on the technological front. In the league, Virtual Reality and Augmented reality have been creating a similar buzz in the world of technology for decades now!

So what exactly is AR and VR, and why are they trending?

In this guide to AR and VR we will help you to also know exactly how to get started with the same!

What is AR and VR?

Augmented Reality (AR):

AR is an amazing blend of viewing and interacting with digital elements placed in your physical environment- as if they are there with you, in your very own space. The main idea is to superimpose interactive digital elements into our real world in real-time to make the user experience more immersive

Virtual Reality (VR):

VR is used to create a three-dimensional, computer-generated interactive environment. It can be a simulated experience that might be similar or completely different from the real physical world so that the users can interact with the 3D world.

Why are AR and VR trending and considered as market capturing technologies in future?

On one hand where VR got some significant attention when Microsoft introduced its HoloLens headset and gained even more popularity when Oculus introduced their VR headset, Apple on the contrary, created the world's largest AR platform in place, leaving no stones unturned to develop their products bottom up for AR. These, among the many other advances in VR and AR, and their immersive nature represented a major revolution in the way humans now interact with computers and therefore, gained more interest and significant popularity from the technological industry.

According to a source, as AR and VR markets are expected to increase exponentially within the next ten years, the accessibility, as well as prevalence of AR and VR hardware will simultaneously increase too. As a result, more industries will adopt new ways to utilize this technology and it isn't difficult to say that these technologies will capture the markets in the future.

How to get started on AR development?

1. Technologies used in AR:

Some Commonly used technologies to build AR applications are:

Unity
Vuforia Engine
Unreal Engine

2. SDK’s available on AR:

There are many SDKs (software development kits) available depending on the target device as well as purpose of the application or industry. Some of them are:

ARCore
ARKit
ARtoolkit
Vuforia SDK
Wikitude
Amazon Sumerian

How to get started on VR development?

1. Popular VR Engines:

Some commonly used engines to build VR applications are:

Unity3D
Unreal Engine
LibGDX
AppGameKit VR
CryEngine

2. SDK’s available on VR:

There are many SDKs (software development kits) available on VR depending on the target device as well as the purpose of the application. Some of them are:

HTC Vive / OpenVR SDK
PlayStation VR / PSVR dev kit
Oculus Rift / Oculus SDK
Samsung Gear VR / Oculus Mobile SDK
Google Cardboard / Google VR SDK

Mentioned above were a few areas to help you understand, dig deeper and build. Hope it was helpful and informative!