Exploring Industrial Uses of Virtually Altering the Physical World

Plausible physical-virtual interaction is key to contextual coherence in a world mixed with physical and virtual contents. One way to achieve it is to virtually simulate the interactions, particularly, the physical reactions to virtual actions. In this paper, we describe what virtually altering physical objects means and how it differs from or relates to Augmented Reality, Diminished Reality, Mixed Reality, and digital twins. We also summarize its characteristics and possible industrial use cases through a literature review and ten expert interviews. We hope this work could help promote the industrial development and use of virtual illusions that simulate transformations of the physical world.