Augmented reality
Augmented reality is a virtual layer anchored to the physical world rather than replacing it. Structurally it is a virtual world whose footfall problem is already solved — it inherits the street's traffic — and whose persistence and property problems are not.
The mirror image of an open world
Open worlds give you enforceable ownership and no audience. AR gives you an audience on day one and no settled property rights: anchors persist per-vendor, and nobody has established who holds development rights over the airspace above a real shop.
Why it belongs in this register
Filing AR under hardware is the most common analytical error in the category. Economically it is the same question — a persistent layer where people spend time and can be sold to — and it satisfies a different subset of the same preconditions.
See also
Related entries in the Register. Every see-also is reciprocal — if this entry points there, that entry points back.
Metaverse Group, The Register, REG-017 “Augmented reality”, as at 2026-08-28. https://metaversegroup.com/encyclopedia/augmented-reality/
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