(Phil Lelyveld note: the 3D Lab is in the cue for a demo pair.)

I held a black-and-white square of cardboard in my hand and watched as a dragon the size of a puppy appeared on top of it and roared at me. I watched a tiny Earth orbit around a real soda can, saw virtual balls fall through a digital gap in a table, and viewed a life-sized virtual human sitting in an empty chair.

What made these impressive special effects possible was a pair of augmented reality (AR) glasses—specifically, the Wrap 920AR glasses from Vuzix. Whereas virtual reality shows you only a digital landscape, augmented reality (AR) mixes virtual information, like text or images, into your view of the real world in real-time.

Read the full MIT Technology Review story, with video, here: http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/26692/