Apple Increasing Focus on Augmented Reality Eyewear, Any Launch Still Over a Year Away

[MacRumors]

Apple is "stepping up" its augmented reality eyewear efforts, with an eventual goal of releasing a consumer-facing product, according to the Financial Times.

Apple first began to build a team to examine the feasibility of a head-worn device more than a year ago. Now, it is devoting more resources to its augmented-reality efforts, with the aim of taking it from a science project towards a consumer product, according to people familiar with the company's plans.

Don't expect to be wearing a pair of Apple-branded augmented reality glasses in the near future, however, as the report said any potential launch remains at least a year away, or "perhaps much longer."

Bloomberg was first to report that Apple is exploring digital glasses that would connect wirelessly to iPhones and "show images and other information in the wearer's field of vision." The report said the digital glasses, which may use augmented reality, would not launch until 2018 at the earliest if at all.

One person who expects a sooner launch is tech evangelist Robert Scoble, who insists that Apple is working on a pair of "mixed reality" glasses that will debut alongside the 2017 iPhone lineup, according to his sources. He also said Apple and German company Carl Zeiss are working together on augmented reality optics.

Scoble's information has yet to be corroborated by other sources, so 2018 or later remains a more likely timeline at this point.

While a standalone product appears to remain far off, most analysts agree that Apple will start incorporating AR-related features into its existing products in the near future. A future iPhone camera, for example, could be able to detect faces and apply Snapchat-like filters using augmented reality.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has shown significant interest in augmented reality over the past few years, calling the technology everything from "profound" to a "big idea like the smartphone" in recent interviews. He also believes that augmented reality is essentially more important than virtual reality.

Last year, Cook said that Apple continues to "invest a lot" in augmented reality, and the company has filed several patents related to the technology over the past decade, confirming its interest in the field. However, Apple routinely tests new products and technologies that are never publicly released.

Apple's augmented reality efforts have been preceded by the Microsoft HoloLens, a cordless, self-contained Windows 10 holographic headset that mixes virtual reality with augmented reality. Microsoft began shipping the HoloLens Development Edition in March 2016 for $3,000 in the United States and Canada.

Article Link: Apple Increasing Focus on Augmented Reality Eyewear, Any Launch Still Over a Year Away

 

[Kaibelf]

Something about this line of articles reminds me of the Apple Car ones. Breathless speculation with incredibly thin information, then when it becomes clear that the project never really was something resembling the speculation, there likely will be an article about how Apple's "abandoning" a project that never really was going in earnest and how those people are being "reassigned." I suspect the car project was probably not an actual car, but a platform play, and that this will likely be more like Snapchat than anything you ever saw in Minority Report.

 

[WinstonRumfoord]

I could sure use a computer I could upgrade the graphics card or add internal drives with more than I could use augmented reality glasses.

 

[Spectrum]

Years away surely?
Didn't Google's project disappear due to lack of interest?

 

[Iphtashu Fitz]

It'll be interesting to see if Apple can pull this off successfully. IIRC, Google Glass wasn't very popular because people out in public didn't like the idea of Glass wearers recording every last thing that was going on. Imagine sitting at a bar with a friend who has a camera recording everything you do/say. A lot of people would feel very self-conscious about it.

 

[Sasparilla]

Apple is the only company who might give us this with some privacy baked in (everyone else is going to see your data as something to be mined) - and this tech (Augmented Reality) is going to be huge, so nice to see more confirmation Apple is playing in this area.

The guy expecting them this fall seems rather optimistic (he needs to go put some more money into Magic Leap, that was a joke BTW...). Frankly even a 2018 launch seems a stretch based on what they'd have to do from a power (battery in the frame?) and work standpoint (even with the iPhone doing most of the work)...

Years away surely?
Didn't Google's project disappear due to lack of interest?

Seems like years away to me as well. Google's glass project seemed beset with a couple of problems, one of which was a strong repulsion to people walking around hoovering up live data of everything/everyone constantly (privacy). Although they stopped selling the "prototype" glass, I think Google is still working on the project (i.e. it isn't dead as far as I know).

 

[Spectrum]

It'll be interesting to see if Apple can pull this off successfully. IIRC, Google Glass wasn't very popular because people out in public didn't like the idea of Glass wearers recording every last thing that was going on. Imagine sitting at a bar with a friend who has a camera recording everything you do/say. A lot of people would feel very self-conscious about it.

I agree. I think the concept in its current form is not very attractive.

 

[gugy]

Macs, please!

 

[DTphonehome]

Boy, you know Apple is out of ideas when they're rummaging around in Google's trash bin for their next big product.

 

[PortableLover]

Better make a mac pro with a upgradable tower system for this apple.. can you imagine? Dual quadro gp100 xeon 32 cores x2. Oh apple will get me if they do this!

 

[hawkeye_a]

The mass market is eagerly awaiting a reason to wear glasses. NOT

This is what Apple has come to...taking direction from fads and buzzwords.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

They should take all the time they need.

 

[LordQ]

My LASIK was too expensive to start wearing glasses again. How about a Mac Mini instead?

 

[Naraxus]

Too bad it's not stepping up its efforts in the professional space, and no, the iPad Pro (much like some of their other "pro products") is not a pro machine despite what Cook deludes himself into thinking.

 

[Dilster3k]

How about a solid Mac? No...? Okay...

 

[magicschoolbus]

will it have a headphone jack?

 

[Dave245]

The problem is what about those of us that already wear glasses? How will they implement it for us?

 

[Quu]

I really cannot see people wanting to wear these things on their face. People put up with glasses to have good eyesight but I don't think they can make an augmented thing desirable enough for people who don't already wear some kind of spectacle want to put one of these on their face.

I mean 3D Glasses failed for the same reason and you only had to wear those for 90 minutes to watch a film, something like this you're expected to wear it either all the time or at-least every day for some time.

The watch wasn't a bad idea because we always have worn watches on our wrists. The phone also made a lot of sense people needed portable cellular devices but I don't think people wan't to wear things on their face that is so technological.

 

[longofest]

Something about this line of articles reminds me of the Apple Car ones. Breathless speculation with incredibly thin information, then when it becomes clear that the project never really was something resembling the speculation, there likely will be an article about how Apple's "abandoning" a project that never really was going in earnest and how those people are being "reassigned." I suspect the car project was probably not an actual car, but a platform play, and that this will likely be more like Snapchat than anything you ever saw in Minority Report.

There is more to this than the car. The car thing always seemed extremely far-fetched. The only toe Apple has into the auto market is CarPlay, which is infotainment. Its like someone saying "I want to build a human body! I'm starting with a fingernail." Apple had 1/1000th of the expertise needed to work on a car. It just didn't make sense.

Augmented reality though - that's another ballgame. Apple has experience in mobile devices and wearables. Whats more, Apple prides itself on not only the function, but the form of a device. If Apple does go after glasses, I guarantee it will look better than Glass ever did (though I do dread them making everyone look like a hipster).

 

[loekf]

The problem is what about those of us that already wear glasses? How will they implement it for us?

Even worse, what if you have glasses with multiple focal areas ("for reading and looking further away"). Good luck with that.

I thought AR was all about projecting images on your eye's pupil, so why the heck do you need physical glasses like in the image ?

 

[honglong1976]

"yeah, you stick your phone in a cardboard box and strap it to your head"
"seriously?"
"yeah, it's the next big thing. Next is duck taping a coat hanger so you can receive 5G and gluing an activity tracker to your leg to count more accurate steps! Nike are lovin it! "
"i'm in!"

 

[MacFather]

Deleted.

 

[crsh1976]

Sounds a lot like the made-up stories about the Apple Car, the Apple smart television, the Apple fridge and the Apple everything else.

No doubt the R&D department has tons of projects going on, most of which will not end up on the market. Let's just leave it at that.

 

[The.Outsider]

Funny how so many have opinions about how this is a good thing or a bad thing, debating back and forth about why or why not... while very few actually points out the obvious... MacRumors..... Macs... where are they? Laptops and iPads, iPhones and iPods (barely)... Why are there no active debates, critical and honest talks about the lack of interest from Apple in developing desktop machines that live up to the current state of computers. It is 2017 and in 2001, we all thought Macs would be such a powerful dominant machine that we'd literally have no idea how to imagine the awesomeness they would hold. Most of you probably don't remember the wonder MacOS X was compared to MacOS 9. The transition or the birth of the iMacs... Macs... THE MACINTOSH computers... Performa Series, etc... the PowerMacs the PowerBooks... the legacy that is all but forgotten because what we have is the iPhone... that's Apple...

Maybe it's just me, but I feel Apple gets away with everything they want, because we let them. No one is actively demanding the company to focus on reviving instead of killing the pro consumer community. They killed Aperture, an App that was wonderful and was just ignored for years... Final Cut Pro Studio was dumbed down and what iMovie is now, compared to what it once was is also shameful. Nothing is what it was, and yet, the joke is, that Apple as a company is one of the richest companies in the world, they have ALL the power, resources to develop new technology instead of buying it and silencing it. They are no longer innovative, they are behind and cost far too much to justify investing in it. It's sad because it was a safe and great platform but for those of us who grew up with it, worked with it, invested in it and used it for work, now are actually forced to look elsewhere. Tim Cook's promise of a big revival of the Mac and Pro users, is a joke... in fact it's a lie. Just like all their products, it's form over substance. Apple has lost their way a long time ago... I don't think Steve Jobs would care either way where Apple is today... if he did, he wouldn't have given it to Tim Cook.

Agree or Disagree... Apple need to be reminded by those who use it, that they have a tiny assortment of products, if the iPhone fails, that's it.. nothing else will save them. They lost all their good engineers and software developers, no wonder why all their products are dumbed down and look pretty but are also pretty useless.

Don't you want to see powerful Macs rise again in the market to be able to handle 4K and 8K videos without a glitch? Don't you want the MacOS to run smoothly and not resemble the iOS and be limited? I'm just wondering those who defend Apple religiously... what do you see in this company that those who've been with them since MacOS 7 don't?

I just wonder...
[doublepost=1490628440][/doublepost]

We love the Mac.™

And you put this image perfectly into the very essence of what I was saying... Mac's are practically dead... Mac Pro the most expensive one is the oldest of them all.. the one that cannot be justified with the old tech that's in it... the cost... it's insane....

 

[gaximus]

I know its probably been said before but... iGlasses