Branding

I was talking today with some colleagues about our research, which is not exactly virtual reality, and not exactly augmented reality. We are sort of doing VR for AR: We use various virtual reality techniques to prototype a kind of extreme future augmented reality.

The question came up as to what terminology we should use to describe what we are doing. Neither “virtual reality” nor “augmented reality” really describe it. So perhaps a new term is needed.

I had an inspiration. I told my colleagues that we need something radically new and forward looking, more futuristic and cutting edge than mere virtual reality. “What we need is a brand new acronym,” I explained. “Something that would be completely exotic to young people. So let’s call it Virtual Co-present Reality … VCR!”