Digital reality, which includes augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), will grow to a market of $162 billion by 2020, according to IDC. And I personally think that augmented reality will be the winner in this market, for several reasons.

First, augmented reality doesn’t require the user to wear a big, clunky headset. Nobody wants to wear that for hours; it’s uncomfortable if worn for long periods of time and you have to take it off to do anything else. With the amount of time people now spend multitasking, that won’t work.

The only alternative at the moment is to be in a “virtual reality booth”. Although it seems interesting, people will not have these large reserved spaces in their homes.

So the second reason VR won’t be as big is because selling to individual consumers is the only way anything new in the gaming industry can get off the ground today.

Next, VR right now is mostly limited to gaming. And gaming, especially with large headsets, doesn’t appeal to most of the general public.

I realize that VR gaming headsets are selling well. There is a place for them, and they will be part of the bigger picture of digital reality. But I think AR will end up being the dominant force in this market.

So what is augmented reality? Put in basic terms, it is anything projected on a screen that is not actually there.

An example that everyone has seen is the yellow line during soccer games that marks the next first down. It’s actually been around since 1968, although it’s nothing like what it used to be (thankfully).

There was also Google Glass, which was Google’s own AR “headset” in the form of glasses. The product was highly anticipated by the tech market, but not by anyone else.

Its launch in 2014 was a flop and it was discontinued the following year. That was mainly due to its $1,500 price tag, as well as fears that Google was secretly recording people.

But now, this technology is exploding to the point where we could use it multiple times a day.

Virtual Shopping and Augmented Reality

At this point, most of AR is done through smartphone apps, which is convenient because our phones are always right in front of us.

For example, Amazon has an application called Amazon AR that allows customers to view their products in the real world.

One of the main reasons people don’t want to buy housewares online is because they want to be able to see the product in real life. But until now, this meant going to the actual store and then imagining what the product would look like at home.

The AR technology in this app allows you to see a virtual version of the product in real life, which eliminates having to go to the store to pick something up. Shopping online is also faster and easier to navigate; you have hundreds of products in front of you, and now you can see how they would look in your home.

Ikea has a similar app called Ikea Place. One of the most tedious parts of buying furniture is having to measure all the dimensions and then trying to estimate if the piece of furniture you want will fit. But with the app, you can see what any “life-size” Ikea piece of furniture would look like in your home.

Augmented reality has hundreds of different uses

Augmented reality is also proving its value for manufacturing companies. For example, Ford and Volvo are using AR in their car design process. Now, instead of having to build a physical clay model of each car, they can visualize it with augmented reality.

This technology can save a lot of time and money spent on fixing bugs and guessing how to create or improve a car’s functionality. Once this product is fully integrated, it will remove the entire prototype phase of car design, allowing manufacturers to release new models more frequently.

We can already get a glimpse of what’s to come with AR, as hundreds of different uses are being discovered and developed.

Sticking with automotive uses, a company called AR-media is developing an app that allows you to track maintenance and perform repairs on cars.

The app is called I-Mechanic and it could really save people a lot of money by showing them how to perform routine maintenance on their cars.

In fact, Volkswagen pioneered this technology when it created an app that could be used with its XL1 model. While he had the right idea with the technology, only 200 of those cars were ever sold to the public, so no one could actually use the app.

I-Mechanic will be available for use with a variety of car models, building on what Volkswagen started.

Lastly, believe it or not, there is technology being developed to turn your windshield into an AR station:

While a “smart windshield” can be distracting for drivers, the real potential here would be in self-driving or assisted-driving cars. The person in the car could use the windshield for things like GPS or getting information about nearby points of interest.

Invest in Augmented Reality

Augmented reality has taken the technology market by storm over the past two years, and it’s just getting started. In addition to all the apps and features I’ve covered here, there are hundreds more in existence or in development.

There are also ways to invest in this technology.

companies like Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) and Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) they are creating augmented reality platforms that are used every day by people and businesses alike.

In 2018, I think we will see exponential growth in the augmented reality market and a significant immersion of the technology in our daily lives.