Augmented Reality is the ability to insert and overlay the digital information in the real world in real time. An augmented reality system generates a composite view for the user that is the combination of the real scene viewed by the user and a virtual
scene generated by the computer that augments the scene with additional information. The virtual scene generated by the computer is designed to enhance the user’s sensory perception of the virtual world they are seeing or interacting with.
The goal of Augmented Reality is to create a system in which the user cannot tell the difference between the real world and the virtual augmentation of it. With AR one is able to recognize & see things and immediately get information about them using smartphone. AR utlizes the camera or GPS of your smartphone to gather information about the world around you. It then uses internet connection on your smartphone to gather additional information about those things, and finally takes that information and renders it on your screen in 3D space as if they were physically there in the environment in front of you.
In simple words, AR can be described as the ability to seemlessly and dynamically integrate graphic and other multimedia content with live camera views on PC or mobile computing devices such as your smartphone.
One of the great AR apps is Junaio which is an augmented reality browser and allows the user to see the world in whole new way.
Amazing Videos explaining Augmented Reality