An Augmented Environment can be experienced through different sets of Augmented Reality (AR) technologies, including mobile displays (tablets and smartphone screens), computer monitors, or Head-Mounted Displays (HMDs), among others. AR is a technology that layers computer-generated enhancements atop an existing reality to make it more meaningful through the ability to interact with it. AR offers the integration of digital information and imagery onto the real world in real-time. In order to broaden the vision beyond this definition, AR can be described as systems having the following features: (1) combines real and virtual; (2) interactive in real-time; and (3) registered in 3D, allowing other technologies, such as mobile technologies, monitor-based interfaces, monocular systems to overlay virtual objects on top of the real world. Currently, AR applications use the camera provided by mobile devices to produce a live view of the real world in combination with relevant, context-appropriate information such as text, videos, or pictures.
There are lots of applications and systems in the market that provide AR functionality, making it difficult to classify and name them all. Some of them are related to the real physical world and others with the abstract, virtual imagery world. Sometimes it is not easy to figure whether it is an AR, as often AR is defined as Virtual reality (VR) with transparent HMDs. In general, the concept is to mix reality with virtual reality, including information and overlay over the real world through HMDs such as they seem apparent as one environment. The virtual objects can react accordingly with the camera's movement as it is registered concerning the real world, which is also the central issue of AR.