Augmented Reality: Types of AR

Key takeaways

Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that overlays text, images, videos, animations, and other digital products onto a real-world view.

• The two main types of AR are marker-based and markerless, which are triggered by external inputs such as GPS or QR codes.

• The difference between marker-based and markerless AR lies in the source of the external triggers and how the AR app responds to them.

• You can use AR devices such as eyeglasses, goggles, headsets, and helmets to experience augmented reality.

Learn more about the two main types of augmented reality and how you can use them in your daily life. Afterward, enroll in the University of Michigan’s Extended Reality for Everybody Specialization to learn how to design and develop your own extended reality (XR) applications. 

What is AR?

Augmented reality is a technology that overlays text, images, videos, animations, and other digital products onto a real-world view. Unlike virtual reality, which aims to make you feel like you're experiencing an entirely different reality or location, augmented reality enhances your current world. Augmented reality uses artificial intelligence (AI), AR software, sensors, cameras, and screens to improve what it can “see” and provides an extended version of the real world.

Augmented reality can change how we interact with the world, including how we learn, interact with the world in our day-to-day lives, and create and design products. 

Read more: Augmented Reality vs. Virtual Reality: What’s the Difference?

What are the different types of AR?

You can separate augmented reality technologies into two main types: marker-based and markerless. Both groups qualify as “triggered” augmented reality, meaning the experiences happen in response to external triggers, such as GPS location or scanning a QR code. The difference between marker-based and markerless AR involves where the external triggers come from and how the augmented reality app is programmed to respond. 

Marker-based augmented reality 

Marker-based augmented reality experiences occur in response to a predetermined input into your smartphone or other device. For example, if you're taking a self-guided hike or tour, you might rely on a series of QR codes that you scan to learn more information about the location you are touring. When you scan the image, your device determines the position and angle of your camera to compare the scanned image to a database until it finds what you are looking at and responds as it was programmed to respond. The visual marker you react to, commonly a QR code, is also called a fiducial marker and is commonly used to access digital content.

The distinguishing characteristic of marker-based augmented reality is that you provide a designated fiducial marker to your device, and it returns a predetermined output based on how you’ve programmed the device to respond to the marker.

Another example of marker-based augmented reality happened when London Fashion Week was cancelled during the pandemic. In partnership with the Institute of Digital Fashion (IoDF), Machine-A launched virtual boutique experiences that people could scan using QR codes as they traveled around the city. 

Markerless augmented reality 

The second primary type of AR is markerless augmented reality. Instead of a dedicated fiducial marker, markerless AR relies on data provided by geographic location, cameras, sensors like accelerometers or compasses, or even the time of day to determine how to respond. 

Pokémon Go is an example of markerless augmented reality. The app collects data to determine your location, direction of movement, and current time to populate your area with Pokémon characters. With markerless augmented reality, Pokémon Go can decide which Pokémon would be found in your area. The Pokémon characters even know your bearing and speed as you approach them. 

Markerless AR is a broad category that can refer to different types of augmented reality, including location-based, projection-based, and superimposition-based. Augmented reality applications sometimes use more than one kind of AR to create a unified experience. Let’s take a closer look at each of these types of AR.

Location-based AR

Location-based augmented reality uses data from your device’s GPS, accelerometer, and other sensors to determine what image or information to show. For example, location-based augmented reality in an app to view the night sky provides an overlay of information, such as labeling the stars and planets in your camera’s line of sight. Beyond providing additional information, you can also use location-based AR for various community or marketing projects, such as AR murals or games that require you to visit different locations in town. 

Projection-based AR

Projection-based augmented reality uses equipment to project images into a preprogrammed space. As you experience the AR, you are free to walk around and explore the space, but the projected images remain in the designated area. Users can experience images, animations, text, or video in the confines of the projection-based AR. For example, IKEA’s app IKEA Place allows you to project IKEA furniture into your room so you can see how the products will fit in your space.

Superimposition-based AR

Superimposition-based augmented reality replaces one aspect or element of the visual field with something else or overlays an enhanced image onto the object. For example, image filters on social media that replace your face or background with an enhanced image run on superimposition-based AR. The technology needs to categorize the objects in its field of vision to understand which image it needs to replace or improve.

What are some types of augmented reality devices?

Your smartphone or tablet contains a camera that allows you to use and enjoy a variety of AR apps. Other types of AR devices currently in use include eyeglasses and sunglasses, goggles, headsets, and helmets. 

AR devices to watch for: contact lenses with built-in sensors for health or sports performance

Different types of AR applications 

Augmented reality can enhance the way you see the world in many ways. From the development of new products to innovative surgical techniques, AR will continue to expand your experience of the real world. Applications for AR include:

• Retail: Retail stores use augmented reality in a few different ways, such as offering apps that allow you to virtually try on items, offering in-store experiences to add insight and extra information about products, or offering AR experiences as a way of marketing their brands. Another example of retail AR might be an in-store display where you can accessorize or personalize retail products before buying them.

• Education: Teachers can use augmented reality to provide interactive experiences to make learning more engaging, provide additional context to an environment, and make remote learning feel more like in-person learning. Augmented reality helps students view complex models, such as anatomical models, in a classroom space. Museums and historical sites can use augmented reality to demonstrate what the objects or locations would have looked like in the past.

• Health care: Augmented reality provides tools for providers to make their work more precise and efficient, or to provide better patient service. For example, surgeons can use superimposition-based augmented reality to visualize their surgical plan without looking at screens or other devices that take the focus away from the patient. Patients can use AR to find their way through large hospitals as well.

• Entertainment: AR has many applications for entertainment, such as the image filters you might find on Snapchat or Instagram, or the game Pokémon Go. Augmented reality could also enhance live concerts, adding lyrics or other interesting information to your view as you watch. Esports could also benefit from AR capabilities, allowing you to play along or enhancing games as you watch them.

• Employee training: Companies can use augmented reality in employee training to help employees encounter training experiences in a natural setting, such as practicing customer service or situational decision-making. AR can provide tools with step-by-step instructions or other support for technical or complicated work. 

Augmented reality also has uses for tourism, fashion, manufacturing, architecture, national defense, and even space exploration.

These potential uses for augmented reality are just the beginning. In the future, doctors can view X-ray images superimposed on actual patients, drivers might see GPS directions projected on the road in front of them, and you may see enhanced information about the world around you everywhere you look.

Explore our free resources on augmented reality

Join Career Chaton LinkedIn to keep track of the latest trends and opportunities in augmented reality. Discover more about artificial intelligence and immersive technology with our other free digital resources:

• Watch on YouTube: Artificial General Intelligence vs. AI: How Close Are We?

• Learn terminology: Virtual Reality (VR) Terms: A to Z Glossary

• Read about ethical AI: AI Ethics: What it Is, Why it Matters + Challenges to Know

Accelerate your career growth with a Coursera Plus subscription. When you enroll in either the monthly or annual option, you’ll get access to over 10,000 courses.

Build job-ready skills with Coursera Plus

Start 7-day free trial

• 
• 
• 
• 

Start 7-day free trial