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What is optical see-through AR?

In optical see-through AR, you look directly through the optics at the real world while display light is added to your view. Microsoft describes this additive behavior for HoloLens. The physical scene is not simply a camera feed on an opaque screen.

The background remains part of the image

Text sits over whatever you are looking at. That makes the surroundings relevant to contrast and legibility. Assess a cue against several real backgrounds rather than judging it only on a clean product screenshot. A layout that looks clear on a dark wall may be less clear over a bright or busy scene.

Black in a conventional screenshot suggests a filled dark area. In an additive see-through system, a dark display pixel cannot simply erase the real scene behind it. This distinction helps explain why a display preview can show layout faithfully without reproducing what the optics look like outdoors.

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