A video surfaced recently, featuring stunning footage of Disney animator Glen Keane drawing life size versions well-known Disney characters in virtual reality.

Keane, whose credits include the Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Tarzan (to name a few), speaks at length about his approach to animation and how new technologies like VR fit into storytelling.

“When I animate, there’s a frustration that I have, wishing that the flatness of the paper would go away and that I could actually dive in,” says Keane in the video.

“Today all the rules have changed. By putting tools in your hand that can create, in virtual reality, I can put goggles on and I can just step into the paper and now I’m drawing in it.”

The video was produced by the Future of Storytelling (FoST) Summit, ahead of its main even in New York on Oct 7-8. According to the FoST website, the summit aims to bring together media, technology and communications leader to explore how the digital age is changing how we tell stories.

In another FoST video, Gaia Dempsey, Managing Director of DAQRI International extols the virtues of augmented reality as a new, more intuitive way to learn.

“80% of the information that the brain takes is visual. So by providing information in a visual medium that also has the spatial nature of augmented reality, you’re giving the brain a very intuitive way of accessing knowledge.

Augmented reality is the ability to interpose digital information in the real world in a spatial and interactive way,” she says.

Source: Future of Storytelling

These two experts succinctly outline why augmented reality is such an exciting new technology—when you mesh the digital and real world, you end up with near-limitless potential.

Top augmented reality technologies

As the technology develops, nearly every industry is finding benefits in AR—healthcare, logistics, military, defence and education are just a few that have already seen development in this realm.

And with the global augmented reality market expected to grow at a CAGR of 88.52% from 2014-2019, we can only expect to see AR popping up more and more, in everything from basic QR codes, to mobile apps, smart glasses and head mounted displays (HMDs).

Mobile devices

The mobile AR market is growing constantly, with companies like Facebook, Google, and Microsoft expected to launch AR apps to complement their existing products.

Similar trends can be seen across the healthcare, retail, service and maintenance, and advertising sectors.

The market will see a considerable growth rate during 2016-2018. While it is expected to stabilize at around 60% post-2019, constant innovations in AR devices and technology will keep the market growing steadily over the next 20 years.

Smart glasses

Technavio expects the unit shipments of smart glasses to grow at a CAGR of 256.8% from 2014-2019.

But while the growth rate is impressive, reception of Smart Glasses by consumers has been lukewarm at best. This is leading a lot of vendors to re-focus, and target the enterprise segment instead of individual consumers.

Head-mounted displays (HMDs)

HMDs are largely used in defense, aviation, and the healthcare sector, and for engineering applications in enterprises.

They have a leg up on simple mobile apps, since they can be customized for specific uses and are generally more sophisticated in terms of functionality. However, they can also be expensive and not totally user-friendly.

The technology is still in the development stage, with mass production not expected until 2017. This means that a relatively slow growth rate is expected over the next few years.

This will change with an increased preference for immersive 3D visuals via wearable AR and VR technologies. Additionally, new companies in the market will help drive down the price of HMDs, thereby making them more accessible to more people.

For more information on augmented reality, check out Technavio’s new report.