What is immersive?

Introducing immersive technology, fulldome & virtual, augmented and mixed reality

Immersive Technology

Immersive technology is the combination of virtual content within a physical environment. This technology allows the user to engage naturally with the blended reality. In an immersive experience, the user accepts virtual elements of their environment, potentially becoming less conscious that those elements are not part of physical reality.

So to summarise and simplify, an immersive experience involves changing the environment so you might seem elsewhere.

Virtual Reality

Virtual reality is a simulated 3D environment.

This simulation environment is created in the digital world (with computer hardware and software) and enables users to explore and interact with virtual surroundings. Our brains use our senses to navigate around this new environment, making it feel real.

Often VR users will need to wear devices such as helmets or goggles to interact with the environment. The users can immerse themselves deeply in a VR environment the more they are able to suspend their belief and accept it as real, even if it is fantastical in nature. This can feel even more believable if real world physical surroundings are blocked out!

Fulldome

Fulldome is a term used to describe an immersive dome-based video projection environment. In this instance, the viewer is surrounded by a video projection in a hemispherical angle of view.

The dome, horizontal or tilted, is filled with real-time (interactive) or pre-rendered (linear) computer animations, live capture images, or composited environments. Despite astronomy being the most common topic, there are no content limitations and it’s now used also for entertaining shows and other hyper-realistic presentations.

At Market Hall, we currently have a range of family friendly fulldome shows that are for the purpose of entertaining. If you want to find out more, visit the what’s on page.

Augmented Reality (AR)

Augmented reality (AR) is the joining of digital information with the user’s environment in real time. This differs from virtual reality (VR) because VR creates a totally artificial environment whereas AR users experience a real-world environment with generated perceptual information overlaid on top of it.

Augmented reality can be used to visually change natural environments in some way or to provide additional information to users. One of the main benefits of AR is that it has the ability to blend digital and three-dimensional (3D) components with an individual’s perception of the real world.

There are a variety of uses for AR, from helping in decision-making to entertainment.

Mixed Reality (MR)

Mixed reality (MR) is a user environment where physical reality and digital content are combined. This combination allows the user to interact with real-world and virtual objects at the same time.

This is unlike virtual reality (VR) where the user is immersed in a completely digital environment, or augmented reality (AR) which layers digital content on top of a physical environment, mixed reality blends digital and real-world settings.