What Is Mixed Reality? Definition, How It Works and Uses
A technician inspecting an aircraft engine checks a diagram, a checklist and a maintenance history in turn. Mixed reality brings these three sources together on the engine itself. It is a technology that anchors interactive digital objects in real space, seen through a headset, and makes them behave like physical objects.
The content stays aligned with the part it describes. It passes behind the part as the operator moves around it, and it responds to hand or gaze. For maintenance and quality control teams on the shop floor, this stability changes the nature of assistance: the operator keeps both hands free and reads information at the exact spot where they are working.
How mixed reality works
A mixed reality headset runs through four operations, dozens of times per second.
- It maps the room. Cameras and depth sensors reconstruct the surfaces: floor, walls, workbench, machine.
- It anchors the content. The software fixes each digital object to a point on this map. A diagram placed on a housing stays there as the operator moves.
- It handles occlusion. A real object placed in front of a hologram hides it, just as it would hide a physical part.
- It reads gestures. Hand, gaze and sometimes voice tracking let the operator grab, turn or annotate an object without a controller.
Two families of headsets coexist. Optical see-through headsets display the image on a transparent visor: the operator sees the shop floor through the glass. This is the case with the HoloLens 2 and the Magic Leap 2. Video pass-through headsets film the environment and recompose it with digital objects on screens: Apple Vision Pro, Meta Quest 3, Varjo XR-4. The choice depends on the workstation: ambient light, precision required, wear time, safety constraints. Our comparison of XR headsets for industry covers these criteria in detail.
Mixed, augmented or virtual reality: what's the difference?
The three technologies sit on the same continuum, described by researchers Paul Milgram and Fumio Kishino in 1994. At one end, the real environment. At the other, a fully simulated environment. Mixed reality occupies the space between.
| Augmented Reality (AR) | Mixed Reality (MR) | Virtual Reality (VR) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What the operator sees | The real world, with information overlaid | The real world, with 3D objects anchored in space | A fully simulated scene |
| Link to the real world | Display placed over the image, without fine anchoring | Spatial anchoring and occlusion | None, the real world is hidden |
| Interaction | Mostly reading | Manipulating 3D objects in the room | Manipulating objects within the simulated scene |
| Typical hardware | Tablet, smartphone, glasses | Mixed reality headset | Virtual reality headset |
| Typical industrial use | Step-by-step instructions on a tablet | Assistance on machinery, quality control, digital twin | Training, intervention simulation |
The boundaries shift with the hardware. A Meta Quest 3 runs in virtual reality or mixed reality depending on the application. The right starting point is the task itself: simulating off the line, guiding on the machine, or overlaying a model on the real world. For the other two layers, see what is augmented reality and what is virtual reality.
When is mixed reality the right fit?
Mixed reality is useful when the operator needs to work on the real object while consulting information related to it:
- the task requires both hands and leaves little room for a tablet;
- information loses its meaning outside its context, such as a tolerance, a torque setting or a fault history;
- an expert needs to guide a technician remotely on a specific piece of equipment;
- a team needs to assess a 3D model at full scale, in the space where it will be installed.
When the situation cannot be reproduced on site (a rare fault, a dangerous action, equipment not yet delivered), virtual reality answers the need better.
Industrial uses of mixed reality
In industry, mixed reality serves four families of use cases.
- Remote assistance and expertise. An expert annotates the machine from their desk. Their markers stay anchored to the part for the duration of the intervention, and the technician no longer waits for them to travel.
- Hands-free guided quality control. The operator compares the part against tolerances within their field of view, without moving to a separate inspection station. Every validated step stays traceable.
- Spatial digital twin. The model of a line or a machine overlays the real site. Teams read sensor status directly on the equipment concerned.
- Design review. Engineers and ergonomists examine a digital mock-up at full scale, together, before building a physical prototype.
For operator training, Myxed relies on virtual reality training: it reconstructs the full workstation and the fault situations that cannot be triggered on an active line. The detail of each family, with project examples, is covered in our mixed reality use cases for industry.
Mixed reality in healthcare
Mixed reality in healthcare serves three uses: anatomical visualisation from medical imaging, team preparation for a procedure around a single 3D model, and training students in clinical gestures. Myxed designed a medical imaging visualisation project in mixed reality, for surgeons' spatial understanding before an operation and for explaining it to the patient.
Limits of mixed reality
- The field of view stays partial. On optical see-through headsets, holograms only occupy part of the operator's sight.
- Extended wear causes fatigue. Weight and battery life limit session length, to be assessed workstation by workstation.
- The environment disrupts tracking. Low lighting, reflective surfaces or a setting that changes between sessions degrade anchoring.
- Development requires a budget. 3D modelling, interface ergonomics and integration with company data make up most of the cost.
- Adoption has to be prepared for. Without operator involvement from the prototype stage, headsets end up in a cupboard.
Frequently asked questions
Augmented reality overlays information on the view of the real world, often on a tablet or smartphone, without anchoring it finely in space. Mixed reality fixes 3D objects to precise points in the room, handles occlusion and lets the operator manipulate them by hand. The operator interacts with them as they would with physical objects.
The choice depends on the use case. An optical see-through headset such as the HoloLens 2 lets the operator see the shop floor through a visor. A video pass-through headset such as the Apple Vision Pro, the Meta Quest 3 or the Varjo XR-4 offers a richer image. Myxed stays agnostic and combines headset, 3D engine and information system according to the project.
Yes. Practitioners use it to visualise anatomy in 3D, prepare for a procedure as a team, and train students in clinical gestures.
The two terms overlap. "Mixed reality" describes the experience: digital objects anchored in real space. "Spatial computing" describes the software approach that makes it possible, where the computer understands the geometry of the room. Apple uses this second term for the Vision Pro.
The budget depends on the scope. The headset accounts for a minor share of the cost. Most of it goes into development: 3D modelling, interface design, integration with company data. Myxed frames a project around a specific use case, then prototypes, builds and deploys it.
Take it further
Do you have an industrial task in mind and are unsure whether to choose mixed, augmented or virtual reality? Tell us about your use case: we'll help you choose the right layer of reality.