The Pokémon Go is a revolution in the world of video games and thanks to this creation of Nintendo many people came across augmented reality, a technology not so new, but that many did not know existed.
The problem is that some consider augmented reality to be the same as virtual reality. It is not so. Here the differences:

Virtual reality creates a virtual world by transporting the user to that reality. Virtual reality, on the other hand, is a mix between virtual reality and real-life through which the user has to move around the world for the platform to “increase” the presence.
Augmented reality embeds digital information into the real world while virtual reality creates digital contexts that mimic the real world.
In augmented reality users can interact with virtual content in the real world and differentiate them while in virtual reality everything is virtual.
Virtual reality is more enveloping and you have a first-person view where objects are arranged in the three spatial dimensions. In augmented reality, on the other hand, greater freedom is offered for the user to choose the path he or she wants to take.

The augmented reality is considered “economic” and no device is needed too expensive as a helmet like the Oculus Rift to function.
In recent years we have been able to experience an increase in new disruptive technologies thanks to devices as common today as the well-known smartphones and tablets that we can find virtually anywhere in the home or workplace today.

In addition, the appearance of the devices known as wearables like Smart Glasses (Microsoft, Google, etc) or “watches smart” or Smartwatches, make access to information and content is becoming an experience like never before more and more demand by the users.

This is precisely of course the birth of two of the technologies that today are a present reality and that we can find in both the professional and the personal environment( the latter mainly destined for leisure): augmented reality and virtual reality.

In order to take on the real impact that has been and will be the birth of both technologies for our future, first, we will give a definition of each one to know that characterizes them:
Augmented reality (AR): in the scientific field, it is known as a set of technologies that combine real and virtual images, interactively and in real-time, so that it allows adding virtual information to the elements that the user has within the real world.
Virtual Reality (VR): unlike the AR, the VR takes the user out of the real world as we know it, replacing it with a totally virtual world created by computer, as if it were a simulator or video game.

Outstanding Applications

Among the most prominent applications of both technologies within the industrial sector we can find:
Training and simulation of critical environments: just as we can generate environments in which to visualize machines operating in a real way (AR), with virtual reality glasses it is possible to place an operator in a totally virtual environment (VR) where a machine is visualized that has stopped its production (which would mean in reality a great economic loss) for it to check its operation or for practice in environments in extreme conditions, simulating operations in emergency situations without any risk to the operator.
Validation of tasks performed: these technologies also allow us to overlay the information related to a physical element (machine, assembly or even security elements) to obtain a visual confirmation for value that the action has been performed correctly or to determine if it needs a new one to execute.

Overprinting of information: the possibility to overwrite the digital information on the reality can both serve to facilitate training to the operators, as to reduce errors in maintenance tasks and the execution time of the same.

Guided and troubleshooting: By using augmented reality devices, operators can follow tedious processes and the device will guide you step by step by showing the process, identifying the tools and indicating the instructions to follow. In addition to this, it can be connected in real-time with the manufacturer’s technical service thanks to the camera integrated in the smart Glasses carried by the operator, being able to monitor what he is doing at every moment, guiding him without error in every step to be made.

Optimization of designs: in this case the Mixed Reality or also called hybrid (combination of AR and VR) is useful to know, for example, if the future machine or production plant to be implanted adapts to the actual dimensions of the ship where it is intended to be installed.