Advances in extended reality have already changed the way we work, live and play, and it's just getting started.
Extended reality, or XR, is an umbrella category that covers a spectrum of newer, immersive technologies, including virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality.
From gaming to virtual production to product design, XR has enabled people to create, collaborate and explore in computer-generated environments like never before.
What Is Extended Reality? Virtual, augmented and mixed reality are all elements of XR technology.
Virtual reality puts users inside a virtual environment. VR users typically wear a headset that transports them into a virtual world - one moment they're standing in a physical room, and the next they're immersed in a simulated environment.
The latest VR technologies push these boundaries, making these environments look and behave more like the real world. They're also adding support for additional senses, including touch, sound and smell.
With VR, gamers can become fully immersed in a video game, designers and customers can review building projects to finalize details prior to construction, and retailers can test virtual displays before committing to a physical one.
Augmented reality is when a rendered image is overlaid onto the real world. The mobile game Pok mon GO famously brought AR to the mainstream by showing computer-rendered monsters standing on lawns and sidewalks as players roam their neighborhoods.
AR graphics are visible through cell phones, tablets and other devices, bringing a new kind of interactive experience to users. Navigating directions, for example, can be improved with AR. Rather than following a 2D map, a windshield can superimpose directions over one's view of the road, with simulated arrows directing the driver exactly where to turn.
Mixed reality is a seamless integration of the real world and rendered graphics, which creates an environment in which users can directly interact with the digital and physical worlds together.
With MR, real and virtual objects blend, and are presented together within a single display. Users can experience MR environments through a headset, phone or tablet, and can interact with digital objects by moving them around or placing them in the physical world.
There are two types of MR:
Mixing virtual objects into the real world - for instance, where a user sees the real world through cameras in a VR headset with virtual objects seamlessly mixed into the view.
Mixing real-world objects into virtual worlds - for example, a camera view of a VR participant mixed into the virtual world, like watching a VR gamer playing in a virtual world.
The History of XR To understand how far XR has come, consider its origins in VR.
VR began in the federal sector, where it was used to train people in flight simulators. The energy and automotive design industries were also early adopters. These simulation and visualization VR use cases required large supercomputers. It also needed dedicated spaces, including powerwalls, which are ultra-high-resolution displays, and VR CAVEs, which are empty rooms that have the VR environment projected on each surface, from the walls to the ceiling.
For decades, VR remained unaffordable for most users, and the small VR ecosystem was mainly composed of large institutions and academic researchers.
But early in the previous decade, several key component technologies reached a tipping point, which precipitated the launch of the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift head-mounted displays (HMDs), along with the SteamVR runtime.
Individuals could now purchase personal HMDs to experience great immersive content. And they could drive those HMDs and experiences from an individual PC or workstation with a powerful GPU.
Suddenly, VR was accessible to millions of individuals, and a large ecosystem quickly sprung up, filled with innovation and enthusiasm.
In recent years, a new wave of VR innovation started with the launch of all-in-one (AIO) headsets. Previously, fully immersive VR experiences required a physical connection to a powerful PC. The HMD couldn't operate as a self-contained device, as it had no operating system and no ability to compute the image.
But with AIO headsets, users gained access to a dedicated device with a simple setup that could deliver fully tracked VR anywhere, anytime. Coupled with the innovation of VR streaming technology, users could now experience powerful VR environments, even while on the go.
Latest Trends in XR High-quality XR is becoming increasingly accessible. Consumers worldwide are purchasing AIOs to experience XR, from immersive gaming to remote learning to virtual training. Large enterprises are adding XR into their workflows and design processes. XR drastically improves design implementation with the inclusion of a digital twin.
Image courtesy of Innoactive. And one of today's biggest trends is streaming XR experiences through 5G from the cloud. This removes the need to be tethered to workstations or limit experiences to a single space.
By streaming over 5G from the cloud, people can use XR devices and get the computational power to run XR experiences from a data center, regardless of location and time. Advanced solutions like NVIDIA CloudXR are making immersive streaming more accessible, so more XR users can experience high-fidelity environments from anywhere.
AR is also becoming more common. After Pok mon GO became a household name, AR emerged in a number of additional consumer-focused areas. Many social media platforms added filters that users could overlay on their faces. Organizations in retail incorporated AR to showcase photorealistic rendered 3D products, enabling customers to place these products in a room and visualize it in any space.
https://developer.download.nvidia.com/cloudxr/videos/compressed/CloudXR_mclaren_
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
13/06/2026
Latest expansion pack includes 252 presets
Devious Machines have recently introduced another expansion for their powerful multi-effects plug-in, Infiltrator...
13/06/2026
Create custom DAW/plug-in controllers using prompts
MetaGrid have recently introduced an all-new AI Builder function to their touchscreen-based control surf...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production, Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it has given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what o...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
AgentPerf from Artificial Analysis, the industry's first agentic AI benchmark, gives developers, enterprises and infrastructure providers a clear way to com...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film
Entertainment
12 June 2026
GlobalArgentina
Link copied to ...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm i...
12/06/2026
With John Daro, DI Colourist at Warner Bros. Water Tower Color Tuesday 23 June, 10am-1pm or 3-6pm
Restar Corporation
Tokyo
Register here
John Daro is the ...
Advances in extended reality have already changed the way we work, live and play, and it's just getting started.
