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Apple AR Headset 'Approaching Liftoff' as Development Mirrors Period Before Apple Watch Launch
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I had the Oculus for 2 years. Gen 2 which was very light weight.
Finding legs doesn't take long. But walking into stuff and knocking stuff over is unavoidable because most people do not live in a mansion with a big empty space
I can't see people using it for more than a couple of hours without feeling horrible when taking it off. It especially ****s up my hair and my hair is short to begin with. I end up having a dent in my hair where the strap fits. It's not cool to need a shower and blow dry after using VR just to get your hair shape back to normal.
The way this is being pitched 'You'll be able to live and work in it' that's just dishonest marketing and completely bogus. You cannot do a full working day in this. You cannot spend meaningful productive time such as 5 hours or more a day. It's pointless when you can do just about everything work task better in front of a normal screen.
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Watching movies is not so great in it. I tried a couple of virtual cinemas with random strangers coming and going. You really don't want to watch a movie and at the same time be conscious that you have something strapped to your head no matter how light it is. It's always best when 100% of your focus is on a movie.
BIG difference? Ever heard of Android? Apple competed pretty successfully in the smartphone market against Google. Samsung was also pretty set on dominating the smartwatch market with its rushed entry. How did that turn out for Apple?
Zuck and Meta are a software company - they have no clue how to integrated software and hardware at scale. They previously failed spectacularly with their attempt at building a smartphone - you don't think Zuck did whatever he could there?
Even if Meta came out with a decent set of AR glasses - a big IF, given they don't have a handset to do the heavy lifting like Apple does - a device that was similar in capability to the Apple offering - who would buy the Meta glasses? By now people know that FB invades privacy as part of their business model. Meta would have to practically give them away for folks to agree to wear them all day.
Were those headsets heavy or bulky that caused the distraction? Maybe Apple will make theirs lightweight to minimize that.
I can think of AR/VR headsets as a training tool in a professional setting like training pilots or doctors doing surgery in a VR setting.
AR hasn't even arrived yet, so it's a bit early to say that it has 'fizzled'. The product being talked about int this article *is* an AR device - and it's Apple's first so, again, nothing that could even have fizzled as in the past tense.
Perhaps you're thinking that AR has fizzled because not that many AR-kit based apps have been written yet? Well, ARKit was created to *prepare* app developers for AR glasses. The fact that some AR apps have already been written and not so well received is simply because nobody in their right mind would hold an iPhone in front of their faces while walking around.
Facebook has a public meltdown over the release of Apple's VR product in...
I'm waiting to see what Apple comes up with. I had thought of buying an Oculus unit years ago, but then Facebook bought them. At the time I couldn't think of a reason why that made any sense at all. I expected them to kill Oculus from mismanagement, or their tech to be morphed into some ridiculous product no one would want. Hmm...
I'm waiting to see what Apple comes up with. I had thought of buying an Oculus unit years ago, but then Facebook bought them. At the time I couldn't think of a reason why that made any sense at all. I expected them to kill Oculus from mismanagement, or their tech to be morphed into some ridiculous product no one would want. Hmm...
"The enormity of the technical challenge — compressing daylong battery, 5G, compute, cameras, lidar, projectors and wave guide lenses into a lightweight, attractive pair of glasses" While I'm sure there were/are lots of technical challenges, there's no evidence that Apple is trying to fit all of those technologies into the glasses themselves. As a matter of fact, quite the opposite: there have been a number of rumors indicating that the AR glasses will be companion devices to the iPhone - i.e. the iPhone will do all the heavy lifting from a computing, storage, and networking perspective. So the AR glasses themselves just need a high-bandwidth, lower power networking capability and a small CPU that can transmit signals from its sensors to the iPhone and receive AR images to put in the user's field of vision.
This is the only thing that makes sense - the battery technology is simply not there to have self-powered AR glasses be standalone and last all day. Apple isn't going to sell some heavy-a$$ headset that needs to be strapped on in order for the weight not to pull them down.
This is the only thing that makes sense - the battery technology is simply not there to have self-powered AR glasses be standalone and last all day. Apple isn't going to sell some heavy-a$$ headset that needs to be strapped on in order for the weight not to pull them down.
What past product(s) are you talking about with respect to Apple? Because AR is just about the only technology Apple has talked about for years. All its other products had no chit-chat about it for years. Or were you speaking generically? Even so, which tech products - that have been successful - have had their CEO promote its technology for years in advance? I can't think of a single one.
Got the kids an oculus for christmas to play games, and I can totally see the future of gaming getting really big in VR...as soon as Minecraft officially ports without needing to be tethered that would be huge. All of that said however, I can see beyond the games. Just sitting in the "home" screen, there is no reason I couldn't do everything I do on the computer or tv or smart phone. Why buy a huge monitor when VR/AR it could be so much bigger. Why would I even need a desk, I can create my own virtually. Sure there is a difference between real and virtual world, but so much of what i do at work everyday could be done in VR/AR equally or better (not everything, but many things). I know a lot of people are haters, but this is really a platform that could replace desktop, laptop, and smartphone computing all at the same time.
The Oculus was very light and considering I can deadlift 600lbs such weight makes no difference to me.
It's simply the fact that something is strapped to your head that is distracting and becomes annoying after time passes.
In Iraq under Hussein, the regime had a torture method of making a prisoner sit under a faucet. The faucet would release one tiny drop of water every 10 seconds. It sounds like nothing but after a few hours the prisoner would go insane.
So even something that seems small or meaningless can have a very large and outsized negative effect after some hours or days. That's also how we don't notice repetitive strain injuries build up after many years. Because it seems like nothing unusual is happening until those small effects become cumulative.
I would say that maybe the Apple version won’t have them but
This is a good question. This is gonna need to be an iPhone level presentation of showing us what this is for.
I’m not sure a literal EyePhone like in the Futurama episode is what we want, but it’s what I’m picturing.
Who said that? I don't remember anyone saying that with the first Kyocera Qualcomm Pilot Phone in 2000. Nor with any of the other smart phones. Didn't see that written about in the tech magazines of the time, either.
AR assisted surgery, inspection, learning/instruction, estimating of different types, repair, modeling, and on and on. The good news is that Apple doesn't need to come up with these use cases as they already exist.
I can think of about a million off the top of my head. Not that it matters. Apple will want to start at 0 and then slowly curate & add content to shape it how they want it to be used, just like anything. Probably try to make it their next great halfhearted push into gaming by tying it in with iOS. Then add things like exploring your city with 3d apple maps, meeting people “in person” by wandering in to virtual gathering spaces, like chat rooms from 1999 again, then throw in business data, hours, ordering, let businesses register accounts & their inventories, attend social & cultural events virtually, etc etc etc. No idea what they’ll start with, but I’ll put money on v1 being prevented from doing about 2/3 of what v3 will be able to do. 25 years ago, anyone could see the vast potential of VR (& AR) but that potential has remained untapped the entire time, because graphics looked like crap, hardware couldn’t handle that much 3d rendering, and no one wanted to have to turn into The Lawnmower Man just to order a pizza. But now that those obstacles are on the verge of being out of the way, there is no reason to think we should all continue to interact with every piece of software in the world forever by using a typewriter and a pointy stick. Interface design for creative tools will finally be opened up to match their analog equivalent. The idea that in 500 years, to work on a product design, graphics or film project by relying on memorizing thousands of typewriter hotkey combinations…. Nope. When we do any of those things in the analog world, we have a huge range of tools each with varying degrees of nuance and control. The flat 2d gui with a handful of menu items and numeric variables are an understandable first step in the development of working in digital space, but are still quite limited and crude compared to how far interaction design could go. Once we can see what we’re doing and interact with our work in 3 & 4 dimensions, we can really to see some major improvements in quality. Especially in adding a working dimension in 2d media. But yeah, people will want to see their favorite actors, actresses, models, characters, monsters & pets getting it on in their own living rooms too. I don’t know how Apple will prevent that without monitoring everything anyone is making their game characters do at all times, but I’m sure they’ll try to built those controls in.
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AR projected images would have to be perfect right down to less than half a millimetre with no wobbling motions for surgery, unless you mean only calling up patient history and instructions.
Engineering is almost impossible in VR and has been tried way back in the days of Silicon Graphics. You need to use a mouse or tablet to get the precision required. Your hands need to be against a physical surface, your desk, for stability. I tried 3D modelling and painting in VR and it was only good for broad motions.
I've worked with wearables almost 20 yrs ago, we bought a Xybernaut, basically a wearable PC with the main unit on your belt and a little screen in front of your eye attached to a headset, if I recall right it was a 386 running Windows 3.1, it was actually great, we looked into use case for remote troubleshooting, learning and such. Didn't deploy it mainly due to cost, was 10k at the time.
Clearly, wearable has its use cases, and maybe my question wasn't specific enough, but what are the compelling use cases for AR/VR? that is what I'm struggling with, use cases that have broad user bases, not niche cases, something for your "average" consumer
I think the timing will be dependent on when they can schedule an actual live event, as this would surely deserve that.
Only for broad generic visualisation. That's easy and most of it is conceptual rather than needed.
Doing fine surgery on things like nerves, veins and arteries, forget AR. Every individual has a slightly different configuration of where nerves, veins and their tributaries rest. This surgery is a completely physical process and no AR technology helps here.
AR wouldn't be able to resolve the level of detail required for this and would get in the way of a surgeon's vision. One small error = patient dead = hospital sued.
AR can assist (already does). That's the role. But at the end of the day, a surgeon should have learned everything about anatomy anyway.
These AR glasses should be very obvious when cameras are recording. No one likes secret recordings posted on social media.
Will Apple AR glasses have the option to change lens colour? Like ski goggles changing the lens for different light conditions. Apple AR glasses could have a night mode with LIDAR.
Apple AR glasses could connect to vehicle onboard cameras through Apple Car Play. With enough cameras the car could disappear or there could be x-ray vision through the vehicle.
We'll see what Apple comes up with....
Will Apple AR glasses have the option to change lens colour? Like ski goggles changing the lens for different light conditions. Apple AR glasses could have a night mode with LIDAR.
Apple AR glasses could connect to vehicle onboard cameras through Apple Car Play. With enough cameras the car could disappear or there could be x-ray vision through the vehicle.
We'll see what Apple comes up with....