Reality-Creating Technologies as a Global Phenomenon

Digital reality technologies have become a global phenomenon that attracts huge attention from researchers and practitioners around the world. ResearchandMarkets.com predicts that the global revenue for both augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) applications will reach $94.4 billion by 2023. As an introductory chapter to the edited book volume on the global impacts of digital reality technologies, this chapter examines the current state of digital reality technologies around the world. Global, regional, and country statistics are presented to shed light on the diffusion of a variety of digital reality technologies such as augmented reality, mixed reality, and virtual reality. Potential and existing digital realty technologies around the world will be examined in greater detail to provide readers with contextual information for the remaining chapters of the book.