Artificial reality was the term Myron W. Krueger

Myron W. Krueger

Myron Krueger is an American computer artist who developed early interactive works. He is also considered to be one of the first generation virtual reality and augmented reality researchers....

 used to describe his interactive immersive environments, based on video recognition techniques, that put a user in full, unencumbered contact with the digital world. He started this work in the late 1960s and is considered to be a key figure in the early innovation of virtual reality

Virtual reality

Virtual reality , also known as virtuality, is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds...

. His first book Artificial Reality was published in 1983 and updated in Artificial Reality II in 1991 (both published by Addison-Wesley

Addison-Wesley

Addison-Wesley was a book publisher in Boston, Massachusetts, best known for its textbooks and computer literature. As well as publishing books, Addison-Wesley also distributed its technical titles through the Safari Books Online e-reference service...

).

In modern language "Artificial Reality" is often used to describe a virtual reality that is indistinguishable from reality. This in contrast with the term virtual reality which is often applied to technology that "like" reality but can easily be recognized as a simulation.