> The difference being that the synthesized objects behave as if 'attached' or otherwise interact with reality.

That's also AR. MR is an umbrella term intended to cover both AR and Augmented Virtuality (which is basically injecting real-world objects scanned by a Kinect 2 or whatever into the right place in the world as viewed through a VR headset, that kind of thing). http://etclab.mie.utoronto.ca/people/paul_dir/IEICE94/ieice....

Are the terms being redefined now? AR used to mean all you described here - mixing synthesized object with reality in a context-dependent manner.

I suppose I could welcome this change, if it keeps people from putting Pokémon Go in the same bucket with Google Glass and HoloLens...

But isn’t it even more of a corner case then, basically certain games? Or the ikea “how does that sofa fits in the room” example (which I might use once every 5 years...).

More go for a run in the rainforest, walk down the street and see people in the latest virtual fashion, sit in your empty room and see it as opulent luxury, etc. Im inclined to think we are over a decade or two away from that (at least to the extent that the lines of reality would be truly blurred), but I understand thats what Magic Leap is hyped to deliver.

> sit in your empty room and see it as opulent luxury

That sounds incredibly sad.

Looking at how so many people use social media, it also sounds like it may be incredibly accurate. And that makes things even sadder.

None of which will really work without direct neural interfacing. And we're probably three or four decades away from that.

Glasses and screens are always going to feel clumsy for AR/MR. The technology would need to shrink/improve by at least one and preferably two orders of magnitude to become unobtrusive, and that's going to be extremely difficult to do.

Once the resolution, tracking, energy usage, form factor (...etc etc etc) is good enough these devices will be able to replace every screen you use.