That's my original 1994 paperback edition of William Gibson’s ‘Virtual Light’ in the photo above. I would have first read it in ‘97 or ‘98 a few years after it came out, many years before augmented reality became what it is today. Microsoft HoloLens 2 may not ‘...work your optic nerves direct’, though it suspends data in your field of view exactly the way Gibson envisaged thirty years ago.
Seeing the science fiction of your youth become the reality of your present, well, it’s like People say on the cover, “Both exhilarating and terrifying."

Augmented Reality is the umbrella term for the different technologies that overlay digital information onto the real world. This could be via an app on a smartphone or tablet like Pokemon Go in which users point their phone cameras at the world around them only to see pokemon pop up here, there and everywhere. Another way we can see this digital data overlaid onto reality is by placing screens, projectors, cameras and speakers into a pair of glasses or a headset. Virtual Reality requires helmets, Augmented Reality can be experienced with Smart Glasses.
It allows you to not only see digital imagery but to interact with it, move and resize it, listen and feel it via haptic feedback. You're doing this not in a closed virtual enviroment but as you move through the real world. It really does what it says on the can - the technology augments reality. 

Textbooks can be brought to life. Pop on a pair of smart glasses and that dull, static piece of paper can have animations marching across the page and include videos and interactive quizes. An excursion to the National Gallery can happen in a classroom, or the inhabitants of Taronga Zoo appear on the school oval. When students do visit galleries, museums or zoos in real life the technology can be used to bring up additional information or modify existing information so that it is more age appropriate or translated into the user's native language.

Myself and many of my English as Additional Language students use their smart phones and the AR live translation function available in the Google Translate app. You point your camera at whatever text you want to translate and a digital version mimicing the style of the original pops into view leaving the surrounding environment as it is. It's not flawless but it's improving day by day.

Try it for yourself! I've written a message below in Japanese which you can translate on your smartphone by using the AR camera function of Google Translate or Google Lens.

Pokemon Go was the first AR app that took the world by storm

Microsoft HoloLens2 are smart glasses being used in industry and education.

AR in conjunction with smart glasses can be used to provide hands-on training for skills that are difficult or expensive to simulate in a traditional classroom environment. Engineering and architecture students can use AR to visualise coneptual designs in the environment in which the final structure will be located. The technology is even being used to simulate medical procedures.
Case Western Reserve University has embraced AR and smart glasses. Medical students are using Microsoft HoloLens 2 to study anatomy and dissection without ever having to touch a body. They can interact and manipulate 3D projections which allows them to see into the body in ways that would not normally be possible. The technology allows users to collaborate through time and space by projecting virtual avatars of students and professors. An anatomist in Australia can be present for a virtual dissection in the States.

Medical students have to learn vast amounts of information and research by Microsoft has revealed that use of HoloLens2 can lead to a 50% improvement in retention and the amount of required class time has been reduced by 40%. The video below shows how AR is being in Case Western Reserve University.