Virtual reality (VR) is an interactive computer-generated experience taking place within a simulated environment, that incorporates mainly auditory and visual, but also other types of sensory feedback like haptic. This immersive environment can be similar to the real world or it can be fantastical, creating an experience that is not possible in ordinary physical reality. Augmented reality systems may also be considered a form of VR that layers virtual information over a live camera feed into a headset or through a smartphone or tablet device giving the user the ability to view three-dimensional images.

Augmented Reality  is an interactive experience of a real-world environment whereby the objects that reside in the real-world are "augmented" by computer-generated perceptual information, sometimes across multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory, and olfactory. The overlaid sensory information can be constructive (i.e. additive to the natural environment) or destructive (i.e. masking of the natural environment) and is seamlessly interwoven with the physical world such that it is perceived as an immersive aspect of the real environment. In this way, augmented reality alters one’s ongoing perception of a real world environment, whereas virtual reality completely replaces the user's real world environment with a simulated one.

Touch interaction is a user interface system that augments virtual objects into reality either through a projector or optical display using sensors to track a person's interaction with the object. For instance, using a display and a rear projector system a person could create images that look three-dimensional and appear to float in midair.[1] Some systems utilize an optical head-mounted display to augment the virtual objects onto the transparent display utilizing sensors to determine visual and physical interactions with the virtual objects projected.

Human-computer interaction uses interactive devices, somatosensory interactive system software, and three-dimensional digital content to sense the movement of people. It enables users to control and interact with their console/computer without the need for a  controller, through a natural user interface using gestures and spoken commands.

Special effects are traditionally divided into the categories of optical effects and mechanical effects. Mechanical effects are usually accomplished during the live-action shooting. This includes the use of mechanized props, scenery, scale models, animatronics, pyrotechnicsand atmospheric effects.

Holography is the science and practice of making holograms. Typically, a hologram is a photographic recording of a light field, rather than of an image formed by a lens, and it is used to display a fully three-dimensional image of the holographed subject, which is seen without the aid of special glasses or other intermediate optics. The hologram itself is not an image and is usually unintelligible when viewed under diffuse ambient light. It is an encoding of the light field as an interference pattern of seemingly random variations in the opacity, density, or surface profile of the photographic medium. When suitably lit, the interference pattern diffracts the light into a reproduction of the original light field and the objects that were in it appear to still be there, exhibiting visual depth cues such as parallax and perspective that change realistically with any change in the relative position of the observer.

A laser lighting display or laser light show involves the use of laser light to entertain an audience. A laser light show may consist only of projected laser beams set to music, or may accompany another form of entertainment, typically musical performances.