XR glossary: virtual, augmented and mixed reality, explained from the plant floor
The words of virtual reality
explained with projects.
Each term with its definition, where it comes from, how it looks in an industrial project and how it differs from the term next to it.
For anyone evaluating VR or AR for a plant who needs to understand what is on offer before buying.
The terms
In alphabetical order. Each one opens with its definition and the source behind it.
Augmented reality
Digital information aligned in 3D with the physical surroundings, which the person keeps seeing.
Digital twin
A digital representation of a machine or a process, kept in sync with its operating data.
Extended reality (XR)
The umbrella term for virtual, augmented and mixed reality and everything that falls between them.
Haptic gloves
Gloves that send vibration or resistance back to the fingers and usually track them too.
Mixed reality
Physical and virtual objects in one view, with the digital content resting on the room’s surfaces.
Passthrough
The headset feature that shows the room through its cameras, so you see it without taking it off.
Spatial computing
Interaction with a machine that knows where things are in the physical space and works with them.
Virtual reality
A computer-generated environment that replaces what a person sees and hears and responds to movement.
VR headset
The head-mounted display: one image per eye, redrawn with every movement of the head.
VR motion sickness
The discomfort that appears when what the eyes see in a headset does not match what the inner ear feels.
VR simulator
A system that reproduces equipment or a task, answers with its physics and scores whoever practices.
How to use this glossary
For anyone who hears these words in a meeting and has to decide with them: the training manager comparing two proposals, the plant manager being offered a digital twin, or the IT lead who has to put twenty headsets on the network. Many definitions online come from gaming or from a vendor's product page; here each term is explained by what it means inside an industrial project.
Each term opens with its definition and the source it comes from. It then explains how it works, how it differs from the term it is most often confused with and which decision it changes in a project, with an example from a project Fyware delivered, and it closes with the pages where the topic continues: cases, guides and calculators.
Definitions cite their primary source: the papers that coined or fixed each term (Sutherland, 1968; Milgram and Kishino, 1994; Azuma, 1997; Greenwold, 2003; Grieves, 2014), the reports and standards that use them (3GPP TR 26.928, ISO 23247-1, ISO 9241-910 and the ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765 vocabulary) and the specifications and guides each manufacturer publishes, checked on October 23, 2026. Quotes are verbatim and stay in their original wording. Examples come from Fyware projects published as cases, with the client named as each case names it. Headset specifications change with every model: check the manufacturer's current sheet before buying. Reviewed: October 23, 2026.
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