IEC TR 63610:2026

IEC TR 63610 ®
Edition 1.0 2026-11
TECHNICAL
REPORT
Augmented and mixed reality equipment and systems - Technology and
standards review and gap analysis

ICS 33.160.60 ISBN 978-2-8327-1592-5

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CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 3
INTRODUCTION . 5
1 Scope . 6
2 Normative references . 6
3 Terms and definitions . 6
3.1 Terms and definitions . 6
3.2 Abbreviated terms . 6
4 AR and MR technical domains . 6
4.1 General . 6
4.2 Development platform . 7
4.3 Service platform . 8
4.4 Content . 8
4.5 Device . 9
4.6 Network and interface . 9
4.7 Interconnectivity . 9
5 AR and MR equipment . 11
5.1 Consumer device . 11
5.2 Simulator . 11
5.3 Peripheral device . 11
5.4 Haptic or force-feedback device . 11
6 Consumer device . 11
6.1 General . 11
6.2 Classification by form factor . 12
6.2.1 Glasses type . 12
6.2.2 Head-mounted type . 12
6.3 Classification by processing functionality . 12
6.3.1 General . 12
6.3.2 Tethered type . 12
6.3.3 Standalone (untethered) type. 12
7 Performance factors . 12
7.1 General . 12
7.2 Performance factors for content and development platform . 13
7.2.1 Integration accuracy . 13
7.2.2 Rendering speed . 13
7.2.3 Environmental understanding . 14
7.2.4 Interaction between physical objects and augmentations . 15
7.3 Performance factors for service platform . 15
7.3.1 Service interfaces . 15
7.3.2 Content and service management . 15
7.3.3 Content and data manipulation . 16
7.4 Performance factors for network – Network latency and bandwidth . 16
7.5 Performance factors for devices . 16
7.5.1 Wearability . 16
7.5.2 Accessibility. 17
7.5.3 Visibility . 17
7.5.4 Human factors . 18
7.5.5 Interfaces, protocols and data formats . 19
8 International SDO activities . 19
8.1 ISO Technical Committee 159/Subcommitte 4: Ergonomics of human-system
interaction . 19
8.2 ISO Technical Committee 172/Subcommittee 3: Optimal materials and
components . 20
8.3 ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1/Subcommittee 24: Computer graphics,
image processing and environmental data representation . 20
8.4 ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1/Subcommittee 29: Coding of audio,
picture, multimedia and hypermedia information . 20
8.5 ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1/Subcommittee 31: Automatic
identification and data capture techniques . 20
8.6 ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1/Subcommittee 36: Information
technology for learning, education and training . 20
8.7 IEC Technical Committee 110: Electronic displays . 20
8.8 IEC Technical Committee 100: Audio, video and multimedia systems and
equipment . 20
8.9 World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) . 21
8.10 OpenXR . 21
8.11 IEEE P1589 . 21
8.12 IEEE 2888 . 21
8.13 IEEE 3079 . 21
9 Standardization gap . 21
Bibliography . 24

Figure 1 – C-P-N-D concept for understanding AR and MR technical domains . 7
Figure 2 – Interconnectivity among AR and MR technical domains . 10
Figure 3 – Example of environmental understanding (occlusion) . 14
Figure 4 – Example of environmental understanding (SLAM) . 14
Figure 5 – Examples of interaction among augmented objects and real objects . 15
Figure 6 – Vergence-accommodation conflict . 19
Figure 7 – Standardization gap and potential items . 23

Table 1 – Classification of consumer AR and MR devices . 11
Table 2 – Performance factors . 13
Table 3 – Potential standardization items . 22

INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
Augmented and mixed reality equipment and systems -
Technology and standards review and gap analysis

FOREWORD
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IEC TR 63610 has been prepared by IEC technical committee 100: Audio, video and multimedia
systems and equipment. It is a Technical Report.
The text of this Technical Report is based on the following documents:
Draft Report on voting
100/4582/DTR 100/4618/RVDTR
Full information on the voting for its approval can be found in the report on voting indicated in
the above table.
The language used for the development of this Technical Report is English.
This document was drafted in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, and developed in
accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1 and ISO/IEC Directives, IEC Supplement, available
at www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs. The main document types developed by IEC are
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The committee has decided that the contents of this document will remain unchanged until the
stability date indicated on the IEC website under webstore.iec.ch in the data related to the
specific document. At this date, the document will be
– reconfirmed,
– withdrawn, or
– revised.
INTRODUCTION
With the enhancement of technology, including computing processing units, optical systems,
sensors and computer graphics, augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) technology has
been reached to fulfil various requirements from consumers as well as various industries.
Especially, certain industries, which were already equipped with IT-based infrastructures such
as IoT and cloud-based service, and also interested in visualizing information gathered through
those infrastructures while ensuring user’s mobility as well as no direct manipulation of
information devices for the visualization, have higher potential to adopt AR and MR technology
for the improvement of efficiency and quality of work and for the convenience of users.
AR and MR technology is a computer-generated or digitally created content overlaid on user’s
real-world environment, which can interact with the digital content. This AR and MR can be
experienced via both AR equipment with diverse form factors such as glasses and head-
mounted devices, and service systems bringing AR and MR content and applications to
designated users.
The purpose of this document surveys AR and MR technology in detail in terms of content,
platform, network and device, so called C-P-N-D, and identifies potential technical items that
can be standardized within the scope of audio, video and multimedia systems and equipment.

1 Scope
This document, which is a Technical Report, analyses AR and MR technology in terms of four
technical domains: content, platform, network and device. Based on this analysis, technical
elements in each domain and requirements for interconnecting those technical domains are
identified. On the same basis, this document identifies relevant standard development
organizations’ activities and suggests items for standardization.
2 Normative references
There are no normative references in this document.
3 Terms and definitions
3.1 Terms and definitions
No terms and definitions are listed in this document.
ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following
addresses:
– IEC Electropedia: available at https://www.electropedia.org/
– ISO Online browsing platform: available at https://www.iso.org/obp
3.2 Abbreviated terms
AOV angle of view
AR augmented reality
ERP enterprise resource planning
FOV field of view
HMD head-mounted display
MES manufacturing execution system
MR mixed reality
PMS project management system
SDO standard development organization
SLAM simultaneous localization and mapping
VAC vergence-accommodation conflict
VR virtual reality
4 AR and MR technical domains
4.1 General
AR and MR services can be delivered to users with the combination of cutting-edge
technologies from hardware to software. For the systematic classification of AR and MR
technical domains, this document explores the technical details in terms of content, platform,
network (or interface), and device (C-P-N-D) as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1 – C-P-N-D concept for understanding AR and MR technical domains
4.2 Development platform
Development platform usually provides developers with authoring tools and interfaces to a
service platform for creating and publishing AR and MR content and applications. Some of the
development platforms are provided by device manufacturers and dedicated to specific AR and
MR devices they manufacture. In this case, the development platform supports their own
hardware-specific functions such as exchanging sensor data and control data with their own
formats through proprietary interfaces and protocols. The others are provided by software
companies for the purpose of supporting general AR and MR devices and commonly offer APIs
for developers to utilize.
A development platform typically supports the following functions:
– either modelling 3D objects or importing from other 3D authoring tools, or both;
– recognizing and understanding real world object, user’s intention, and environment;
– interaction among users, augmented objects and real objects;
– rendering functions, for example stereoscopic rendering or monoscopic rendering
depending on hardware specification of AR and MR device;
– interface to service platform for uploading the developed content.
4.3 Service platform
There are three types of service platforms to consider: for users, for AR and MR devices, and
for applications.
A service platform for users, similar to an application store for smartphone, enables not only
users (or service subscribers) to access the AR and MR content or applications, but also content
developers to upload their own created AR and MR content or application through interfaces
provided by the service platform provider. In most cases, those service platforms are practically
offered by AR device manufacturers because of the dependency between content and hardware.
For the general use of content regardless of hardware, content conversion can be performed
by content developer or in a service platform.
A service platform for users generally offers the following functions:
– interfaces to users for downloading (or purchasing) content and for charging for the
downloaded content;
– interfaces to developers for uploading content and for paying for the purchase of their
content;
– management of uploaded content, subscribed users, and developers;
– online authoring tools for content development;
– conversion of content depending on the hardware specification of a user’s device, if
applicable.
A service platform for VR, AR and MR devices has high-processing power and remotely
executes complex calculations for manipulating 3D objects and understanding a user and
environment by use of sensor data generated by VR, AR and MR devices having a relatively
low-processing power.
A service platform for applications, depending on the service scenarios, provides interfaces
with external service systems such as ERP, MES, PMS, etc. for obtaining original data to be
converted into 2D or 3D objects.
4.4 Content
Content is as a set of computer-generated 2D or 3D objects and software program. A software
program usually performs a rendering process and dedicated processes to provide designated
services. Since the scope is to render naturally 2D or 3D objects as if they are real objects
interacting with user and environment, it is important that the rendering process reflects the
recognition result of user’s movement, user’s intentions, and environmental changes.
The computer-generated object can usually be made by the use of the following sources:
– pre-designed 3D object;
– 2D or 3D object converted from engineering drawing data;
– 2D or 3D object converted from real-time operational data (i.e., value, text, etc.) or acquired
with laser scanner (i.e., point clouds), which is not binary data representing graphical
elements.
As for the pre-designed 3D object, it is important to recognize an exact displacement between
user and the 3D object, and the orientation of user’s head for realistic display of the 3D object
on a device the user wears, which is generally executed by a software program or a
development platform provided by a device manufacturer.
In case of the 2D or 3D object converted from engineering drawing data, it is also important to
integrate the converted 2D or 3D object exactly on the real object in addition to the recognition
of displacement and orientation of user.
Software program of content usually executes processes for understanding user’s intention and
environmental changes by receiving and analysing sensor data from AR and MR devices, and
for deciding how to control the 2D or 3D object and how to give feedback to user.
4.5 Device
Devices can be categorized into consumer devices, peripheral devices and simulators.
Consumer devices excite the senses of a user who wears them. For example, mostly AR and
MR consumer devices give virtual audio-visual sense, and haptic devices give the haptic
feedback. Peripheral devices are used by a user to control the AR and MR content and to make
AR and MR content understand the user’s intention, but they are not common in the applications
of AR and MR, unlike VR applications. Simulators imitate specific environments and give virtual
experiences to users similar to real environments, which are commonly used for the purpose of
industrial training and personal entertainment such as gaming.
4.6 Network and interface
Network is also essential to the AR technical domain. With the technical advance of mobile
network such as 5G, most of telecommunication companies are considering real-time AR
services delivering AR content from a service platform to subscribers via their 5G network. With
the high bandwidth of the 5G network, in case of real-time content, it is possible for the content
to transfer collected sensor data including audio, video and multimedia data (e.g.
heterogeneous sensor data) to the service platform, which deduces user’s intention,
environmental context, and so on, and sends the result back to the content almost in real time.
As for the interface, the following can be considered for standardization:
– interfaces among devices including wearable devices, simulators and controllers;
– interfaces between devices and a user;
– interfaces between content (or processing unit where content runs on) and sensors in a
specific device;
– interfaces between a service platform and a development platform (or developers) ;
– interfaces between a service platform and users (or subscribers).
4.7 Interconnectivity
Figure 2 depicts detailed functions of each technical domain including content, platform,
network and device, as well as data flow and interconnectivity among them.
Figure 2 – Interconnectivity among AR and MR technical domains
By using a development platform or a so-called "authoring tool", AR and MR content is usually
generated as an application program which can be run on a runtime system. Provided functions
of the content are dependent on hardware specification of a specific device so closely that it is
commonly authored by a development platform provided by a manufacturer of the device, which
means that it is essential for a client to benefit from a device and dedicated content to utilize
services.
A service platform provides upload and download links for developers and users (or
subscribers), respectively. In some cases, its connection can be extended to external servers
for bringing service-specific 3D objects, which can be converted to AR and MR objects suitable
for processing resource of an AR and a MR device.
NOTE ISO/IEC 18039:2019 [1] defines mixed and augmented reality (MAR) reference system architecture with
computational modules including MAR execution engine, sensors, context analyser and display/UI, and relevant
required information construct. It also analyses each of module in three viewpoints: enterprise, computational and
information viewpoints.
___________
Numbers in square brackets refer to the Bibliography.
5 AR and MR equipment
5.1 Consumer device
A consumer device commonly has displays and optics for displaying computer-generated
content. It also has various sensors to provide object manipulation functions. According to the
purpose of use and functionalities, consumer devices can be classified in many ways.
5.2 Simulator
AR and MR technology can be applied to the most of industrial purposes such as manufacturing,
education and training, retail and distribution, transportation, broadcasting, personal
entertainment. Specifically, in the application area of industrial education and training,
simulators are widely used and can be categorized as one of AR and MR devices when they
can interoperate and be synchronized with content displayed on a consumer device or any form
of display device.
5.3 Peripheral device
Peripheral devices, as user interface devices such as handheld controllers for 6DoF interaction
and other specialized controllers like steering wheels, flight sticks, haptic gloves, etc., are used
for some specific AR and MR applications to deliver a user’s intentions or commands to a
consumer device or content rather than using device-free interfaces such as voice recognition,
gesture recognition, gaze tracking, etc.
5.4 Haptic or force-feedback device
A haptic or force-feedback device in the AR and MR applications can be used for providing a
user with various haptic or force-feedback according to the type of user’s interaction and its
result. However, since the use of additional haptic or force-feedback device is rarely common
in the AR applications, a consumer device and a simulator can provide similar haptic feedback
and force-feedback on behalf of it.
6 Consumer device
6.1 General
Consumer devices for AR and MR applications are referred to in various ways such as AR and
MR glasses, smart glasses, HMDs, AR and MR devices. Clause 6 classifies consumer devices,
which are summarized with typical features in Table 1.
Table 1 – Classification of consumer AR and MR devices
Classification by form-
Glasses type Head-mounted type
factor
Lighter (smaller) ← Weight (volume) → Heavier (bigger)
Typical features Lower ← Functionality → Higher
Better ← Mobility (usability) → Worse
Classification by
Tethered type Standalone type
processing functionality
Lighter (smaller) ← Weight (volume) → Heavier (bigger)
Typical features Functionality depends
Worse ← Mobility (usability)→ Better

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