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Virtual reality uses technology to “transport” you to a digital space where you can move through and interact with a simulated environment. It’s just one type of extended reality, an umbrella term that also encompasses augmented reality and mixed reality. VR uses a headset and wearables (like controllers) that engage the senses. Currently, gaming is the most popular use for VR. Other areas that use VR (or will in the future) include medicine, entertainment, travel, shopping, work, education and dating. Live in New York but want to attend your granddaughter’s birthday party in California—without leaving home? Meet her in another world to watch her blow out candles in real time. It’s not as crazy as it may sound. FaceTime and video chats have gotten us part of the way there, but they’re limited to screens. The next generation of social apps is taking people into a whole new dimension: virtual reality. And it promises to change the meaning of human connection. After all, what is virtual reality if not a way to connect people beyond the bounds of physical space? Virtual worlds used to be the stuff of science fiction, but thanks to new technologies, these fantasies are quickly becoming reality. It won’t be long before you—or a simulation of you, rather—will be able to hit up that birthday party using one of the best VR headsets, says Chris Madsen, a senior engineer with Engage XR, a professional virtual reality and augmented reality platform used by many Fortune 500 companies. If you’re still having trouble wrapping your head around futuristic ideas like robots, the metaverse and AR versus VR, you’re not alone. But don’t worry: We’re breaking down the concept and explaining the sort of tech you might encounter in the near or far future. So, what is virtual reality, exactly? Read on to find out. What is VR? Virtual reality uses computer technology to take you somewhere else—a digital “space” where you can move through and interact with others in a simulated environment. Whether that place is a cozy cabin, office building, golf course or sunny beach, the virtual world is getting more realistic and more functional, thanks to rapid advances in the technology, says Madsen. But not all virtual reality is created equal. In the future, you might encounter one (or all) of four types: nonimmersive, semi-immersive, immersive and fully immersive. Nonimmersive VR You probably already use this type of virtual reality on a regular basis. These programs create a virtual place that you can look at and navigate using your phone or computer. First-person video games, home-decorating apps and all those virtual tours you can take right now for free fall under the nonimmersive virtual reality definition. Semi-immersive VR The next step up on the realism scale is semi-immersive VR. You use hardware, like a headset or a 3D screen, to make the virtual place seem like it’s around you. You can explore the virtual place, but you’re still interacting with it using things in the real world. Examples include flight simulators and 3D rides at amusement parks. Immersive VR Virtual reality that uses a headset, hand controls, motion detectors and possibly other wearables to give you the full otherworldly experience is considered immersive VR. You can physically walk around a virtual place while interacting with it inside the VR world. For instance, you can walk into a shoe store, pick a shoe from a shelf, check it out and then purchase it—all from your living room. Tech that stimulates all five senses to give a “real” virtual experience is called fully immersive VR. You’ve probably seen something like it in sci-fi movies. And while it’s not quite a reality yet, the technology is coming faster than you may think. In fact, Madsen estimates it’ll likely be available to the public within the next few years. What are AR, MR and XR? If the idea of a virtual world is blowing your mind, then there’s a good chance you’re curious about other ways the technology might change our lives in the future. And that’s where AR, MR and XR come in. Take AR, or augmented reality, a tech that’s sort of like virtual reality’s cousin. Identifying augmented reality vs. virtual reality isn’t hard. Think of it this way: With VR, you’re going to a virtual world away from the real world. AR, on the other hand, augments your reality. In other words, AR brings the virtual world into your real world. If you’ve ever used a Snapchat face filter or a stargazing app that highlights the constellations in your view when held up to the sky, you’ve experienced augmented reality. Probably the most famous example of AR, though, is the Pokémon Go game, which superimposes images over reality. If VR exists in a virtual world and AR adds virtual elements to the real world, then it should make sense that MR, or mixed reality, blends aspects of both. Microsoft, for instance, has created its HoloLens as a mixed reality device that uses a see-through display to combine the virtual and real environments. XR, or extended reality, is the umbrella term for any tech—including VR, AR and MR—that creates a virtual component of the real world. How does VR work? hands holding up Virtual reality glasses with image inside hands holding up Virtual reality glasses with image inside golubovy/Getty Images Though it sounds like something from the future, virtual reality has been around for decades, and it still works similarly, though the quality has certainly improved. When was VR invented? The first virtual reality prototype was created in 1968 by American computer scientist Ivan Sutherland and his student Bob Sproull. The device was clunky—its weight earned it the name Sword of Damocles—and primitive by today’s standards, but it was groundbreaking in that it generated a virtual world with realistic images. Thanks in part to artificial intelligence, the tech has come a long way in the past five decades. Today, virtual reality requires two main components: wearables that give environmental information to the computer and virtual information to you, plus programs, computer software and firmware that put it all together in a hyperrealistic way, says Madsen. Vision is the primary way human brains get information about the world, so the accurate simulation of sight is the primary focus of most VR. Computers use sophisticated software algorithms to make two-dimensional images and videos feel three-dimensional. Once these images and videos are rendered, or processed and put together, they are sent to a screen in the VR goggles or headset. The screen serves two purposes: It blocks out information from the real world, shielding your field of vision from the light and objects in your physical space. And it displays the virtual world. Two autofocus lenses sit between the eyes and the screen and adjust automatically based on your eye movement and position, allowing the computer to track and adjust the VR display to be congruent with what you’re doing in real life. Similarly, algorithms create stereo sound that is then projected, in sync with the images, to the headset. Motion and pressure sensors in the headset and hand controls give feedback to the computer, which then changes the 3D environment based on your physical actions. Newer technology is working on making VR gloves and other tech to virtually simulate every sense—including touch, smell and even taste.