# AR vs VR: the difference, and which fits training and remote collaboration > AR adds digital content to your view of the real world; VR replaces that view. How each is used for training and remote work in 2026, and which one fits. - URL: https://computese.com/augmented-reality-and-virtual-reality-ar-vs-vr/ - Author: Duong Quan Nguyen, CEO, Computese - Published: 2024-11-01 - Updated: 2026-09-25 - Topics: Web development, Custom software ## In short - Augmented reality (AR) adds digital content to your view of the real world; virtual reality (VR) replaces that view. Mixed reality (MR) anchors virtual objects in the real room, and extended reality (XR) is the umbrella term for all three. - Current headsets do both: Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest 3 and 3S film the room and redraw it (video passthrough). HoloLens is no longer manufactured, and Dynamics 365 Guides and Remote Assist end on December 31, 2026. - Peer-reviewed meta-analyses find XR training about as effective as conventional training, with its value where the real task is dangerous, rare or costly to stage. Treat vendor figures such as four times faster training as vendor data. - For remote help at real equipment, AR needs only a phone: an expert places arrows that stay on the machine. For meetings, be careful: a week-long study of working in VR found worse ratings on most measures and two dropouts on day one. - Choose AR when the work happens at real equipment, VR when the scenario cannot be practised for real, and neither when a video call or a checklist already does the job. Augmented reality (AR) adds digital content to your view of the real world, so you still see the room around you; virtual reality (VR) replaces that view with a computer-generated one. AR suits work on real equipment and remote help from an expert. VR suits practising scenarios that are dangerous, rare or too costly to stage for real. This guide explains the terms (AR, VR, mixed reality and XR), the headsets and glasses on sale as of September 2026 and what changed since 2023, what peer-reviewed studies say about AR and VR training in medicine, aviation, engineering and manufacturing, how teams use both for remote collaboration, and the costs and comfort limits that decide most projects. It ends with a table of which one fits which job. If you are building an AR app rather than choosing one, our guide to [augmented reality programming](https://computese.com/augmented-reality-enhancing-programming/) covers tracking, SDKs and how AR software is built. If you are new to programming itself, start with our [tips for new coders](https://computese.com/essential-tips-for-new-coders/). ## What is the difference between AR and VR? Microsoft's [mixed reality documentation](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/mixed-reality/discover/mixed-reality) draws the line clearly. Experiences that overlay graphics, video streams or holograms on the physical world are augmented reality. Experiences that block your view to present a fully immersive digital world are virtual reality. The distinction is about your eyes, not the software: in AR you still see the real room, in VR you do not. Two more terms sit around them: - **Mixed reality (MR)** covers experiences that can move between AR and VR and place a digital object in the room as if it were physically there. The term comes from a 1994 paper by Paul Milgram and Fumio Kishino, which arranged displays along a "virtuality continuum" from the real environment at one end to a fully virtual one at the other. - **Extended reality (XR)** is the umbrella term. The Khronos Group's [OpenXR specification](https://registry.khronos.org/OpenXR/specs/1.1/html/xrspec.html) defines XR as a continuum of real-and-virtual combined environments generated by computers, inclusive of VR, AR and MR. Vendors add their own names on top. Meta sells Quest 3 as a mixed reality headset, Google calls its headset and glasses platform Android XR, and Apple introduced Vision Pro in [June 2023](https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/06/introducing-apple-vision-pro/) as a "spatial computer". Under the labels, the comparison that matters looks like this: | Question | Augmented reality (AR) | Virtual reality (VR) | | ------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | What you see | The real world, with digital content added | A computer-generated world only | | Typical devices | Phones and tablets, see-through glasses, passthrough headsets | Headsets, including passthrough headsets in their fully virtual mode | | Awareness of surroundings | Full: you can walk, talk and use tools | Limited: walls and furniture may be drawn into the scene so you avoid them | | Where it earns its place | Instructions and remote help at real equipment, seeing a design in place | Practising dangerous, rare or costly scenarios, spaces that do not exist yet | | Main limits | Faint content in bright light, eye strain from focus conflicts | Cybersickness, no view of the room, headset weight and battery life | ## How AR glasses and VR headsets show you the world There are two ways to put virtual content in front of someone's eyes while they still see the room, and they explain most of the practical differences between devices. **Optical see-through.** Glasses or a visor with transparent lenses let real light through, and a small projector or display adds light for the virtual content through an optical combiner. You see the real world directly, with no delay. HoloLens 2 works this way, and so do glasses with an in-lens display such as Meta Ray-Ban Display. The catch is contrast: the virtual image has to compete with daylight. A 2021 review in [Light: Science & Applications](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41377-021-00658-8) calculates that to keep a 10:1 ambient contrast ratio on a sunny day, an AR display needs to deliver at least 30,000 nits, which is why see-through content often looks faint outdoors. **Video passthrough.** A headset with opaque displays films the room with outward-facing cameras, adds the virtual objects and shows the combined picture on its internal screens. Meta Quest 3 and 3S and Apple Vision Pro work this way, which is how one headset can switch between mixed reality and full VR. Everything depends on how fast and how sharp the camera feed is: Apple says Vision Pro's R1 chip processes input from 12 cameras, five sensors and six microphones and streams new images to the displays [within 12 milliseconds](https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/10/apple-vision-pro-upgraded-with-the-m5-chip-and-dual-knit-band/). ![A headset films a real table and cup through its front cameras, a chip adds a virtual cube, and the inside display shows the redrawn table with an orange cube standing on it.](https://computese.com/images/blog/augmented-reality-and-virtual-reality-ar-vs-vr/passthrough.4736955fe1-1536.webp) *A passthrough headset never shows you the room directly: it films it, adds the virtual object and redraws both, so camera quality and latency decide how real the room feels.* Both designs share one comfort problem. A headset shows 3D images on a display at a fixed focal distance, so your eyes converge on a virtual object at one distance while they focus at another. This vergence-accommodation conflict causes eye strain and fatigue in stereoscopic displays, and the same review notes it may be more serious in AR than in VR, because the virtual image sits directly on top of real objects at their real distances. ## AR and VR headsets in 2026: what is available and what changed The market in September 2026 looks very different from 2023. The general-purpose headsets now do both AR and VR through passthrough, Microsoft's see-through HoloLens is no longer made, and the next wave is glasses. | Device | Type | Status and price (USD) | | --------------------- | -------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Apple Vision Pro (M5) | Passthrough headset | Launched February 2, 2024 at $3,499; M5 model since October 22, 2025, from $3,499 | | Meta Quest 3 | Passthrough headset | Launched October 2023 at $499.99; $599.99 (512 GB) on the Meta Store, September 2026 | | Meta Quest 3S | Passthrough headset | Launched October 2024 at $299.99; $349.99 (128 GB) on the Meta Store, September 2026 | | Samsung Galaxy XR | XR headset, Android XR | Launched October 2025 at $1,799 in the US and Korea | | Meta Ray-Ban Display | Display glasses with a wristband | On sale since September 30, 2025, from $799 | | XREAL AURA | Wired XR glasses, Android XR | Reservations opened June 16, 2026; due in fall 2026 | | Meta VR Glasses | VR glasses with a separate puck | Announced September 23, 2026; on sale in spring 2027 at $1,299.99 | | Microsoft HoloLens 2 | Optical see-through headset | No longer manufactured as of December 2024; security updates through December 2027 | The changes worth knowing: - **Apple Vision Pro** went on sale in the US on [February 2, 2024](https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/01/apple-vision-pro-available-in-the-us-on-february-2/). The M5 version, announced on October 15, 2025, adds a Dual Knit Band, up to 2.5 hours of general use per charge and up to 120 Hz. Per Apple's [tech specs](https://www.apple.com/apple-vision-pro/specs/), it weighs 750 to 800 grams plus a separate 353-gram battery. - **Meta Quest 3** was announced on [September 27, 2023](https://about.fb.com/news/2023/09/meet-meta-quest-3-mixed-reality-headset/), which Meta called the world's first mass-market mixed reality headset, with full-colour passthrough. **Quest 3S** followed on [September 25, 2024](https://about.fb.com/news/2024/09/meta-quest-3s-our-most-affordable-mixed-reality-headset/) with the same mixed reality features at a lower price, when the 512 GB Quest 3 also dropped to $499.99. Both now cost more on the [Meta Store](https://www.meta.com/quest/compare/), which rates their battery life at 2.2 hours (Quest 3) and 2.5 hours (Quest 3S). - **Android XR** was announced on [December 12, 2024](https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/platforms/android/android-xr/) with Samsung and Qualcomm. Its first device, [Samsung Galaxy XR](https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/platforms/android/samsung-galaxy-xr/), went on sale in October 2025; Google says it switches between full immersion and staying present in the real world, and ships XR versions of Google apps including Meet. At Google I/O in [May 2026](https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/platforms/android/android-xr-io-2026/), Google said Android XR audio glasses with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker frames launch first, in fall 2026, with display glasses to follow, and reservations for [XREAL AURA](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/xr-ar/awe-2026/), wired XR glasses on Android XR, opened in June 2026. - **Meta's glasses.** Meta showed [Orion](https://about.fb.com/news/2024/09/introducing-orion-our-first-true-augmented-reality-glasses/), its first true AR glasses, in September 2024 as a product prototype that will not reach consumers. What it sells is [Meta Ray-Ban Display](https://about.fb.com/news/2025/09/meta-ray-ban-display-ai-glasses-emg-wristband/), whose display sits off to the side and is designed for short interactions, not all-day overlays. On September 23, 2026 it announced [Meta VR Glasses](https://about.fb.com/news/2026/09/introducing-meta-vr-glasses-3d-movies-immersive-live-sports-100-grams/): about 100 grams on the face, which Meta says is five times lighter than Quest 3, with compute and battery in a puck connected by an optical tether. What camera glasses record, and what the law allows, is covered in [AI smart glasses and privacy](https://computese.com/ai-powered-smart-glasses/). - **Microsoft stepped back.** Its [HoloLens release notes](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/hololens/hololens-release-notes) state that HoloLens devices have not been manufactured since December 2024, and that the November 2024 update was the final feature release for HoloLens 2, with monthly security updates through December 2027. On the PC side, [Windows Mixed Reality](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/deprecated-features) is removed from Windows 11 version 24H2; existing headsets keep working with Steam on version 23H2 only until November 2026. ## VR and AR for training: what the evidence says The broadest summary is a 2021 meta-analysis in [Human Factors](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32091937/) that pooled transfer-of-training studies across fields. Training in VR, AR or MR produced the same outcomes as training in a conventional, non-simulated environment: equally effective, not better. The authors conclude that XR's value lies where conventional training is impossible, for example when danger or cost rules it out. That is the lens for every use case below. ### Medicine and surgery Surgery produced the first randomized, blinded test of whether VR skills carry over to real operations. In that study, published in [Annals of Surgery in 2002](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1422600/), 16 surgical residents were split between VR simulator training and no simulator training. In real laparoscopic gallbladder operations, the VR-trained residents dissected 29% faster and were six times less likely to make errors (1.19 against 7.38 errors per case). The sample was small, but the errors were scored blind, on real surgery. Across health professions, a [2019 meta-analysis](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6362387/) of 31 randomized trials (2,407 participants) found that VR slightly improves knowledge scores compared with traditional learning (standardized mean difference 0.44) and improves cognitive skills more clearly (1.12, from 4 studies). The certainty of evidence was low to moderate, and none of the studies measured effects on patients. AR shows a different profile. A [2025 meta-analysis](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12613513/) of 29 publications found AR and MR teaching improved skill scores, lowered failure rates and shortened performance times compared with traditional teaching, but did not significantly improve knowledge, with the caveat that heterogeneity and publication bias may inflate the estimates. The pattern is useful: AR helps people do a procedure; it does not replace studying it. ### Aviation Aviation already trains in certified simulators, so the question is whether a headset-based device can qualify as one. In April 2021 the European Union Aviation Safety Agency granted the [first certificate for a VR-based flight simulation training device](https://www.easa.europa.eu/en/newsroom-and-events/press-releases/easa-approves-first-virtual-reality-vr-based-flight-simulation), built by Loft Dynamics for rotorcraft pilots, so risky manoeuvres can be practised virtually; EASA notes that around 20% of rotorcraft accidents happen during training flights. A [2025 systematic review](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12546163/) of XR in pilot simulator training found a positive, moderately strong effect on pilot performance (effect size 0.884), but only 5 of its 67 eligible studies qualified for the meta-analysis, and the authors flag simulator sickness and a lack of robust transfer trials as serious gaps. ### Engineering and manufacturing For manual assembly, a [scoping review of 24 studies](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10757401/) in Human Factors found promising results particularly for AR-based training, while VR-based training was mostly, but not consistently, as good as traditional training. A controlled comparison in [Applied Ergonomics (2023)](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37003151/) found no difference between AR, VR and video training in completion time or error count, but VR training came with a higher perceived workload and lower usability ratings. For a plant, that points to AR work instructions at the real station, and to VR only when the line, the machine or the hazard is not available to train on. > [!NOTE] > Vendor figures are marketing data until someone independent repeats them. [PwC's 2020 study](https://www.pwc.com/us/en/tech-effect/emerging-tech/virtual-reality-study.html) of VR soft-skills training, for example, reports learners trained up to four times faster than in a classroom and up to 275% more confident, and puts cost parity with classroom training at 375 learners. PwC develops VR courses itself, the study is not peer-reviewed, and it measured one inclusive-leadership course. Treat such numbers as a hypothesis to test in your own pilot. ## AR and VR for remote collaboration Remote collaboration splits into two jobs that suit different tools: helping someone who stands at a real object, and meeting around something that exists only as a model. **Remote assistance with AR.** A technician points a phone at a machine, and an expert elsewhere places arrows and drawings that stay attached to the real parts. Microsoft Teams supports this as [spatial annotations](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/mixed-reality/remote-assist/teams-mobile-annotate): a desktop user can place 3D arrows or draw in a mobile user's space, on iPhones and iPads with ARKit or Android devices with ARCore, provided at least one person on the call holds a Dynamics 365 Field Service, Guides or Remote Assist licence. No headset is needed: the technician's own phone is the AR device, so there is no hardware to ship before the first call. ![A laptop and a phone on a tripod aimed at a pump are linked through a small cloud. The expert's cursor on the laptop places an orange arrow that points at the pump's valve wheel on the phone's screen.](https://computese.com/images/blog/augmented-reality-and-virtual-reality-ar-vs-vr/annotation.4b4cb3981f-1536.webp) *Remote assistance is AR at its most practical: the expert never travels, and the arrow stays on the valve even when the camera moves.* **Shared design reviews and meetings in VR or MR.** For a 3D design, a shared session keeps one copy of the model and each headset draws it from its wearer's position, so people can point at the same bolt. With visionOS 26, announced in [June 2025](https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/06/visionos-26-introduces-powerful-new-spatial-experiences-for-apple-vision-pro/), Vision Pro users in the same room can share an experience and add remote participants through FaceTime; Apple cites Dassault Systèmes' 3DLive app for reviewing 3D designs with remote colleagues. ![Three VR headsets and a laptop surround one orange 3D model of a gear housing, each linked to it by a dotted line and seeing it from its own angle. A server below feeds the model and the devices.](https://computese.com/images/blog/augmented-reality-and-virtual-reality-ar-vs-vr/shared-model.7719002514-1536.webp) *Everyone looks at one copy of the model from their own position, which is what a screen share cannot give a design review.* For ordinary meetings, the evidence is sobering. In a study published on [arXiv in 2022](https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.03189), 16 people worked in VR for a full week, eight hours a day, and rated it significantly worse than their normal desk on most measures, with concerning levels of simulator sickness; two dropped out on the first day because of migraine, nausea and anxiety. It is one small study, and the authors saw signs that people gradually got past their first discomfort, but it is a reason to keep the video call as the default and use headsets for the sessions that need 3D. ### Which workplace XR products still exist in 2026 Several enterprise products ended in the last two years, so check the lifecycle page before you build a process on one: | Product | Status as of September 2026 | | ----------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides and Remote Assist | End of support on [December 31, 2026](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/announcements/dynamics-365-guides-remote-assist-end-of-support); the apps stop working, data stays in Dataverse | | Microsoft Teams spatial annotations | Available in Teams mobile; Microsoft points some Remote Assist scenarios to it | | Microsoft Teams immersive events | Available: 3D events joined from Teams on PC or Mac, or the [Teams Immersive app on Meta Quest 3](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/teams/meetings/get-started-with-immersive-events-in-microsoft-teams) | | Meta Horizon managed services (HMS) | Sales and business editions of Quest ended [February 20, 2026](https://www.meta.com/blog/an-update-on-meta-for-work/); licences free since, supported until January 4, 2030 | | Apple Vision Pro shared experiences | Available in visionOS 26, with team device sharing for pools of headsets | | Google Meet on Android XR | Available on Galaxy XR since October 2025 | If Remote Assist or Guides runs your field service today, plan the move before December 31, 2026 and export your guides from the Guides PC app, as Microsoft advises. ## What AR and VR cost Hardware is the visible cost, not the only one. Headset prices in the table above run from $349.99 (Quest 3S) to $3,499 (Vision Pro), and Vision Pro users who wear glasses need ZEISS optical inserts ($99 for readers, $149 for prescriptions), because glasses do not fit inside it. A realistic budget also covers: 1. **Content.** A simulation of your own machine or procedure is a software project in its own right; PwC's commercial study put its VR course at up to 48% more investment than a similar classroom or e-learning course, so the economics depend on how many people you will train. 2. **Device management.** Headsets need enrolment, updates, app deployment and a way to wipe lost units. Meta made HMS licences free in February 2026, and visionOS 26 added team device sharing, which stores each person's eye and hand data, prescription and accessibility settings on their iPhone so a pool of headsets can be shared. 3. **Time and spares.** Fitting, charging (rated battery life is 2.2 to 2.5 hours on Quest 3, Quest 3S and Vision Pro), facial interfaces, and supervisors who run sessions. 4. **The systems around the headset.** Sign-in, a content library, completion records and reporting to your learning platform. That last item is easy to underestimate. Besides the headset app, a training programme needs a portal staff sign in to, internal tools that track who trained on what, and APIs that connect them to HR and learning systems. That is ordinary [custom software development](https://computese.com/services/custom-software-development/): portals and internal tools, with the APIs and back ends behind them. ## Comfort, safety and accessibility limits Cybersickness is the first limit to plan for. A [2020 meta-analysis](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2020.00096/full) of 55 studies (3,016 participants) found the pooled Simulator Sickness Questionnaire score across all content was relatively high compared with recommended cut-offs, with gaming content scoring highest and locomotion, visual stimulation and exposure time all influencing symptoms. Design for it: short sessions, seated or standing content without artificial movement, and an easy way to stop. The makers set their own limits: - **Age.** Apple says Vision Pro should [not be used by children under 13](https://support.apple.com/guide/apple-vision-pro/important-safety-information-c0c84db82a44/visionos). Meta requires a minimum account age of 10 for Quest (it can vary by country), and its [Quest 3S warnings](https://www.meta.com/legal/quest/health-and-safety-warnings/quest-3s/) ask people who are pregnant, elderly or have binocular vision abnormalities, psychiatric disorders or heart conditions to consult a doctor first. - **Seizures.** Meta's warnings state that about 1 in 4,000 people may experience severe dizziness, seizures or blackouts triggered by light flashes or patterns. - **Symptoms and breaks.** Apple tells users to take regular breaks and stop at once on nausea, dizziness, headache, eye strain or blurred or double vision, and to feel reoriented before doing anything that needs balance. - **High-consequence work.** Apple states that Vision Pro is not intended for use where a device failure could cause death, injury or severe environmental damage, so it should never be the only safeguard on a hazardous task. > [!IMPORTANT] > Offer every XR course a non-headset path. Some people cannot use a headset at all, because of vision, balance, epilepsy, pregnancy or simply cybersickness, and training they are required to complete cannot depend on it. Accessibility needs deliberate work. Vision Pro includes VoiceOver, Zoom, Voice Control, Switch Control, Dwell Control and Pointer Control, and the W3C's [XR Accessibility User Requirements](https://www.w3.org/TR/xaur/) (a Working Group Note from August 2021) lists what XR content itself must offer: interactions that do not require particular body movements, voice commands, captions you can customize, a mono audio option, and avoiding triggers for motion sickness and seizures. ## AR or VR: which one fits Start from the job, not the device: | Situation | Best fit | Why | | ----------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | A technician at a real machine needs an expert's help | AR on a phone or tablet, with spatial annotations | No headset needed, and the expert's arrows stay on the real part | | Step-by-step instructions at a real workstation | AR (tablet, see-through or passthrough headset) | AR-based assembly training shows the most promising results in the review | | Practising a dangerous, rare or expensive scenario | VR | XR training matches conventional training, and it can stage what reality cannot | | Surgical or clinical skills before touching patients | VR simulator, alongside supervised practice | Randomized evidence of transfer to real operations, though on small samples | | Reviewing a 3D design with people in several places | Shared VR or MR session; a 3D viewer on screens for the rest | One model seen from each person's position | | Learning facts, rules or theory | Usually neither | AR did not significantly improve knowledge; VR's knowledge gain was slight | | Routine meetings | A video call | A week of working in VR rated worse on most measures | Then run a pilot that can fail cheaply: 1. **Pick one task** with a measurable outcome: errors, time to competence, repeat visits or travel days. 2. **Measure the current method first**, with the same people and the same measure. 3. **Test the simplest device that works:** a phone before a headset, off-the-shelf content before a custom build. 4. **Track sickness and dropouts** as seriously as the learning outcome, and keep a non-headset path. 5. **Check the vendor's lifecycle** (support dates, licence changes) before you build on it. Some AR needs never require an installed app. Our [augmented reality programming](https://computese.com/augmented-reality-enhancing-programming/) guide explains how AR runs in the browser with WebXR and how a 3D model on a product page can open in a phone's AR viewer, and how native AR apps are built when you need more. A 3D viewer on a web page still has to [load fast on a phone](https://computese.com/mobile-optimization-for-your-website/) like the rest of the page, which is how our [web design and development](https://computese.com/services/web-design-development/) team builds sites and web applications: held to Google's Core Web Vitals thresholds on real phones. ## Key terms - **Augmented reality (AR)**: Graphics, video or 3D content overlaid on your view of the physical world, through a phone or tablet camera, see-through glasses or a passthrough headset. - **Virtual reality (VR)**: A headset that blocks your view of the physical world and replaces it with a computer-generated environment you can look and move around in. - **Mixed reality (MR)**: Experiences that place virtual objects in the physical room as if they were there, and can move between augmented and virtual reality. The term dates from a 1994 paper by Paul Milgram and Fumio Kishino. - **Extended reality (XR)**: The umbrella term for VR, AR and MR. The OpenXR specification defines XR as a continuum of real-and-virtual combined environments generated by computers. - **Video passthrough**: A headset films the room with outward cameras and shows it on its internal displays, so it can mix virtual objects into the picture. Meta Quest 3 and 3S and Apple Vision Pro work this way. - **Optical see-through**: Glasses or a visor with transparent lenses: you see the real world directly, and a small projector or display adds light for the virtual content. HoloLens 2 works this way. - **Cybersickness**: Nausea, disorientation, eye strain or headache caused by using a headset, usually measured in studies with the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ). - **Vergence-accommodation conflict (VAC)**: The mismatch between where your eyes point (vergence) and where they focus (accommodation) when a headset shows 3D images on a display at a fixed focal distance. It causes discomfort and fatigue. - **Spatial annotation**: An arrow or drawing a remote person places in your camera view that stays attached to a real object, such as a valve, as you move around it. ## Common questions ### What is the main difference between AR and VR? AR keeps the real world in view and adds digital content to it; VR blocks the real world out and replaces it with a virtual one. AR runs on phones, tablets, see-through glasses and passthrough headsets; VR needs a headset. The practical question is whether the person needs to see and touch real things while using it. ### Is mixed reality the same as augmented reality? Not quite. Microsoft describes mixed reality as experiences that can move between AR and VR and place digital objects in the room as if they were physically present. In practice vendors use the terms loosely: Meta sells Quest 3 as a mixed reality headset, Apple calls Vision Pro a spatial computer, and Google uses extended reality (XR) for its Android XR platform. ### Is VR training effective? For practical skills, often yes. A 2002 randomized study found VR-trained surgical residents 29% faster and six times less error-prone in a real gallbladder operation, and a 2021 meta-analysis found XR training about as effective as conventional methods overall. Its strongest case is practice that would be dangerous, rare or costly to stage for real. ### Can a VR headset do augmented reality? Many current ones can. Meta Quest 3 and 3S and Apple Vision Pro show the room through cameras (video passthrough) and place virtual objects in it, then switch to a fully virtual view; Samsung Galaxy XR also switches between full immersion and the real room. A headset without passthrough cameras can only do VR. ### Is AR or VR better for remote collaboration? For helping someone at a real machine, AR is better: an expert on a laptop can place arrows in a technician's phone view. For reviewing a 3D design together, a shared VR or mixed reality session helps. For routine meetings, a video call remains the more comfortable option. ### How much does an AR or VR headset cost in 2026? As of September 2026, the Meta Store lists Quest 3S from $349.99 and Quest 3 at $599.99 (USD). Samsung Galaxy XR launched at $1,799 in October 2025, and Apple Vision Pro with M5 starts at $3,499. Budget as well for content, device management, spares and the time people spend in training. ## Sources 1. 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