The Spatial Computing Glossary: 21 Field Terms From Virtual Reality to Depth Sensing Defined
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This glossary defines 21 terms currently used across virtual reality, augmented reality, and spatial computing, from broad concepts like spatial computing and spatial world down to specific mechanisms like world-anchoring, occlusion, and depth sensing, reporting how the field itself uses each word rather than arguing the author's own framework. Each entry states the one meaning a term currently carries in industry and research use, starting with virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, and extended reality, then moving through the mechanisms that support them: six degrees of freedom, occlusion, passthrough, world-anchoring, field of view, hand tracking, eye tracking, spatial mapping, haptics, immersion, presence, heads-up displays, persistence, latency, and depth sensing. The glossary is built as a reference, not an argument. It reports how companies, researchers, and journalists currently use each word, and says nothing about which devices actually deserve the label, a separate question the author takes up in the other four papers in this series. Entries run from the broadest terms toward the specific technical mechanisms that support them, so a reader can work through the whole document or look up one term on its own. The aim is a single citable definition for words that currently carry different meanings from one article to the next. This is the fifth and final paper in the series.
Author: Ibrahim, Abdul-Rahman Adebola
Language: English
Subfield: Human-Computer Interaction
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7212069899
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