UrbanTechCreative

XR: Extended Reality

What is Extended Reality (XR)?

Extended Reality, or XR, is an umbrella term for technologies that integrate digital content with the real world. XR consists of three elements: Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), and Virtual Reality (VR).

We work across all three to create immersive, story-led experiences — from smartphone-based overlays to fully virtual environments — helping our clients engage audiences in new and memorable ways.

If you're thinking about commissioning an XR project, our Working With Us page walks through how we work from first conversation to deployment.

Augmented Reality (AR)

Augmented Reality blends digital content with the real world as you see it through your phone, tablet, or smart glasses. Instead of replacing your surroundings, AR adds to them — overlaying images, animations, information, or interactive elements directly into your view of physical spaces.

Think of it as a layer of digital information or entertainment that sits on top of reality. You point your device at something and AR recognises what you're looking at, then responds with relevant content. It's already familiar — it powers Instagram filters, furniture preview apps, and museum experiences. AR solves the problem of connecting physical locations and objects to digital information in a way that feels natural and immediate.

Applications and Benefits

AR works across retail, heritage, education, and events. Retailers use it to help customers preview products in their own homes. Museums and heritage sites use it to bring history to life — visitors point at an artifact and see its story unfold. Educational organisations use AR to make learning spatial and interactive. Event organisers use it to create shareable experiences that amplify engagement.

The outcomes are measurable: increased dwell time, higher engagement, enhanced brand recall, and content that people actively want to share. AR transforms static environments into interactive spaces without requiring visitors to wear specialist equipment or download complicated apps.

How We Deliver It

AR experiences work through image recognition, object tracking, or location data. Image recognition identifies real-world markers — a poster, product packaging, or landmark — and triggers relevant content. Object tracking follows moving targets, allowing interactions that feel anchored to physical things. Location-based AR uses GPS and compass data to overlay content at specific coordinates, turning entire city areas into interactive experiences.

We build experiences that can be deployed on Android and iOS devices, making them accessible without special hardware. Experiences can be distributed through dedicated apps or through web-based AR that works directly in mobile browsers. This flexibility means your audience encounters your content where they already are.

Technical Expertise

Our AR Stack:

  • Unity with AR Foundation framework
  • iOS deployment (ARKit)
  • Android deployment (ARCore)
  • Marker-based and markerless recognition
  • Image recognition and object tracking
  • Location-based AR with spatial accuracy
  • Visual Positioning Systems (VPS)

We use industry-standard tools and maintain current expertise across both Apple and Google deployment ecosystems. Our experiences scale from single-purpose installations to city-wide location networks.

Specialist Expertise

Visual Positioning Systems (VPS): Beyond GPS, VPS uses device cameras and computer vision to pinpoint location with metre-level accuracy in urban spaces. This allows AR content to be anchored to specific street-level features, building facades, and public landmarks. We've deployed VPS experiences across city centres and heritage districts where GPS alone lacks precision.

Relevant Experience

Each of these projects uses Visual Positioning Systems (VPS) to anchor AR content with centimetre-level accuracy.

  • Sammy's Christmas Adventure: Location-based AR experience guiding families through a city centre, with interactive characters and seasonal storytelling.
  • Dock Stories: Image-recognition AR revealing the history and stories of waterfront locations to visitors.
  • Cityscape XR: Comprehensive city-wide AR layer enabling multiple themed experiences across public spaces.
  • Cambridge Arts Festival AR Trail: Location-based AR trail connecting festival audiences with art and public space across Cambridge.
  • BT Manufacturing Showcase: Image-recognition AR bringing manufacturing stories to life at BT's Adastral Park R&D headquarters.

Mixed Reality (MR)

Mixed Reality is the convergence of digital and physical worlds. Unlike AR, which overlays content on top of what you see, MR creates genuine interaction between physical and digital objects — they can block each other, cast shadows on each other, and respond to the same space.

MR typically runs on spatial computing devices like Meta Quest headsets. The device maps your physical environment in 3D, then places digital objects and experiences into that real space. You can walk around them, reach through them, and interact with them as if they were really there. MR is used for training, collaboration, design visualisation, and experiences where people need to physically engage with digital content.

Applications and Benefits

MR transforms training and education by allowing learners to practise in realistic, safe environments. Manufacturing and engineering teams use MR for design review and assembly guidance. Museums and attractions use it for immersive storytelling where visitors explore digital narratives within physical spaces. Remote collaboration becomes spatial — team members appear as avatars in shared environments.

The benefits extend beyond engagement: MR reduces training time, improves knowledge retention, enables safe practice of dangerous procedures, and creates memorable experiences. Shared MR spaces allow distributed teams to work as if they're in the same room.

How We Deliver It

We build MR experiences in Unity using Meta Quest as the primary deployment platform. The development process begins with 3D environment mapping — understanding the physical space where your experience will run. We then layer digital content, interactions, and storytelling into that space.

Hand tracking allows natural, intuitive interaction — users can reach out and manipulate digital objects without holding controllers. Passthrough experiences blend reality and digital seamlessly, using the headset's cameras to create enhanced views of physical spaces. Shared experiences let multiple users inhabit the same digital environment simultaneously, creating collaborative moments.

Technical Expertise

Our MR Stack:

  • Unity XR with Meta Quest deployment
  • Full 3D environment mapping and spatial anchoring
  • Hand tracking and gesture recognition
  • Spatial interaction systems
  • Passthrough video processing and enhancement
  • Shared experiences and multiplayer architecture
  • Spatial audio and environmental sound design

We optimise experiences for Meta Quest hardware capabilities and develop robust interactions that feel intuitive and responsive in real-world spaces. Our expertise extends from single-user experiences to multi-user collaborative environments.

Specialist Expertise

Passthrough Experiences: We create hybrid environments that blend the real world (seen through headset cameras) with enhanced digital overlays. This approach keeps users aware of their physical surroundings while deepening engagement through digital augmentation — ideal for training, guided exploration, and narrative experiences in real spaces.

Shared Experiences: Multi-user MR environments where participants appear as avatars and interact within a shared digital space anchored to physical reality. We architect these for smooth networking, synchronised interactions, and meaningful social presence.

Relevant Experience

  • POP.XR: Interactive MR experience exploring contemporary culture and art through spatial interaction.
  • Construct.XR: Mixed and augmented reality for the built environment — design review, site coordination, and spatial problem-solving using Trimble Hololens headsets.
  • Cambridge Tech Enabled Care Services: Immersive technology exploring the future of tech-enabled care, bringing spatial computing into a health and social care context.

Virtual Reality (VR)

Virtual Reality immerses you completely in a digital environment. You wear a headset that replaces your view of the real world with a computer-generated one. VR is used when you need to step entirely into another place — to explore a location that doesn't exist yet, to experience a moment in history, to practise a complex skill, or to tell a story where physical presence in the environment matters.

Unlike AR, which adds to reality, and MR, which blends them, VR creates a complete alternative space. It's powerful for learning, storytelling, training, and experiences where the environment itself is central to the narrative.

Applications and Benefits

VR is used in education to transport students to historical events, scientific systems, or dangerous environments they couldn't otherwise access. Healthcare uses VR for surgical training and patient preparation. Heritage organisations use it to recreate lost buildings and ancient worlds. Corporate training programmes use VR for high-stakes scenario practice — operations, safety, customer service.

The benefits are immediate: increased engagement and learning retention, ability to practise without real-world consequences, and experiences that create emotional resonance and memory. VR can transport an audience somewhere that would be expensive, dangerous, or impossible to visit physically.

How We Deliver It

We build VR experiences in Unity, deploying primarily to Meta Quest headsets. VR development focuses on spatial design — creating environments that feel coherent and navigable in 3D space. We design for natural interaction: users can walk, reach, grasp, and manipulate objects using hand controllers or hand tracking.

Interactive environments respond to user presence and actions. Spatial audio — sound that emerges from specific locations in 3D space — is critical to immersion. Training simulations can present scenarios, evaluate responses, and adapt difficulty. Multiplayer VR allows multiple users to inhabit the same virtual space, collaborate, or compete.

Technical Expertise

Our VR Stack:

  • Unity VR with Meta Quest deployment
  • 3D environment design and optimisation
  • Interactive object systems and physics
  • Hand controller and hand tracking interaction
  • Spatial audio implementation
  • Training scenario architecture and evaluation systems
  • Multiplayer networking and synchronisation
  • Performance optimisation for mobile VR

We develop experiences that maintain immersion while running on mobile VR hardware. Our work spans single-user narratives to multiplayer training and educational environments.

Specialist Expertise

Spatial Audio Design: Beyond stereo sound, spatial audio creates a 3D soundscape where sounds emanate from specific locations in the virtual environment. We implement this to reinforce immersion and guide user attention, making audio an active part of the storytelling and navigation.

Training Simulations: We architect complex scenario-based training where users make decisions, face consequences, and learn through experience. Simulations can track performance, adapt difficulty, and provide feedback — transforming VR into an effective training platform rather than just a visualisation tool.

Relevant Experience

  • Window to the Soul: Immersive narrative experience exploring human connection and emotion through virtual environments.

How We Work Across XR

Across all our XR work, we follow these principles:

  • Accessibility first: Experiences work for users with varying comfort levels, abilities, and technical familiarity.
  • Performance optimisation: All experiences maintain smooth frame rates and responsive interaction on target hardware.
  • Narrative integration: Technical capability always serves story and purpose — never technology for its own sake.
  • Deployment flexibility: We consider distribution strategy from the start, whether dedicated app, web-based, or location-specific installation.
  • Measurement and iteration: We build feedback loops to understand how audiences engage and iterate based on real-world use.