Apple Purchased Akonia Holographics, a Company That Makes Lenses for AR Glasses

[Gorms]

Such a personal style choice. It will be hard to find what, maybe 3 different designs that will satisfy everyone.

Personally the only style of (Sun)glasses I wear or would wear, gotta be square frames and thick arms like -

Make those in space grey or black with clear lenses and I’m sold.

However the previous MCK rumor noted P3 style like -

No way.

You seen Infinity War? Early on there is a scene where Robert Downey Jr pops on what I presume are supposed to be AR Glasses. I'll be damned if Jonny Ive didn't see that and asked who stole the mockups out of his White Room.

I'm personally hoping for an Aviator styling, although a design like your first one is more likely for a V1 until they can shrink the electronics/battery sufficiently. Anything that looks like Magic Leap is doomed.
[doublepost=1535632594][/doublepost]

Zero innovation. We have the money. Hell lets just buy it instead. The signature of modern Apple. Sad.

Well, it worked out alright for them when they bought NeXT.

 

[pppx3]

Here is what I see it becoming:
Siri
Music and audio
Location specific map guides
Location related product Ads (which I hope are not going to be annoying, I hope Apple don't ruin it like this... in saying that, I'm sure competitors will exploit that one to it's fullest)
Gaming will be amazing fun
Visual aids to the visually impaired
Audio aids to the hearing impaired
I recon that Apple will have similar style options as the watch in terms of style and material choices and like the watch, there will be frame options. Cellular and non cellular versions like the Apple watch.

Wish list:
It will have a front facing camera and will interact with hand gestures as well as other Apple products.
Heck, given the facial recognition possibilities, it would be even possible to have a camera facing the person so that it recognises the person, as they put the glasses on.
This is some serious stuff happening and I hope they do this well...

Price:
It won't be cheap, but it will be good quality. Hardware will probably be well ahead of the software, at least for the first year... but after that, the sky is the limit. I guess it would start at $1000 AUD and go up from there. Why so expensive, because the quality MUST be right. The glass MUST be good, the graphics and optics must be the BEST imaginable...

---
It will also have it's own OS... yes, another iteration... but with good reason.
iOS, Mac OS, TV OS, Watch OS, Glass OS.

 

[DNichter]

I like it. I can see more value in AR then VR at this point, but it ultimately depends on what they can produce from the acquisition. If they can make a pair of glasses that aren't much different than what is in fashion today, for around $499, I think they would sell. It's a big if at this point, but if anyone can do it, Apple can. The Apple Watch kind of proves that in my eyes.

 

[macguru212]

Glad to see Apple being so aggressive. AR/VR is the future tech that will drastically change the way we see the world.

 

[dragje]

AR will be huge. Imagine watching tennis or golf and stats or overlays are shown. Or technicians getting dynamic schematics based on what they are working on. Or in the medical field. The application of a seamless AR wearable is almost endless besides as a fashion accessory. Apple can make this a utility application/device.

Based on Apple's R&D spending, there shouldn't be a reason why they couldn't be first and do it well. This would easily add $500B to their market cap.

I agree If, a big if, done correctly by Apple.

 

[Stella]

Battery life is so far the largest challenge. Who wants AR glasses that only lasts a few hours per day?

 

[urnotl33t]

Here is what I see it becoming:

Wish list:
It will have a front facing camera and will interact with hand gestures as well as other Apple products.
Heck, given the facial recognition possibilities, it would be even possible to have a camera facing the person so that it recognises the person, as they put the glasses on.

This is FaceID. It's just a gimmick right now (AniMoji), but there are big hidden things behind that front camera system on iPhone X. FaceID and AniMoji is just a giant field test right now. There's so much more that we aren't being told and that we can't see. There's more coming with this tech.

Take the iPhone X notch camera system, shrink it just a wee bit... that's going to be the bridge [inside and outside] between lenses of the AR face-wear. Apple Watch LTE antenna is in the frame of the Watch. That's going to be in the frame of the AR face-wear. The side arms and behind-the-ear portion of the face-wear will have the Wx chip and battery for connectivity to iPhone, and beamforming signals just like AirPods.

There's your hardware design.

The SiP and OS is going to be the toughest part. Apple Watch is teaching them how to make a small SiP and OS with process-offloading to iPhone. Most likely, I see the face-wear doing process-sharing and offload to Apple Watch, rather than iPhone, and of course auto-pairing to AirPods.

The lenses are indeed the biggest challenge. There's a *chance* they can do auto-focal correction with the lenses. Remember that company they bought for eye-tracking? Combine that with iPhone X camera system and infrared dot-projector, to detect the light-path through the pupils and how it bounces back to the projector system for FaceID. Remember how iPhone X can learn your facial changes? Same with the daily retinal scans. With that offset, the lenses could auto-adjust the focal length and direction like your regular corrective lenses do. Except auto-adjust daily. This would bankrupt Luxotica (owner of LensCrafters). Or rather, partner with them (perhaps a wholly-owned subsidiary of Apple, Inc.?). Now you have a corrective lens with integrated AR all in a clear lens package. This is the obvious path.

This is going to be huge, sexy as hell, and they know what they're doing.
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Battery life is so far the largest challenge. Who wants AR glasses that only lasts a few hours per day?

AirPower. It's just in its infancy right now, but all of the announced stuff is no accident. They have a very well-defined roadmap.

AirPower today is Vapor Ware, I know. It's coming. AirPower 3 is the one you want.

 

[MacBH928]

This AR and VR thing is really not picking up, sounds like 3D TVs. I have been hearing about since before the launch of Oculus Rift which we hardly hear about anymore.

Maybe in the far future like 10 years at least, but currently, I don't see anything happening. Closer to demos/proto types/ or concepts.

Based on Apple's R&D spending, there shouldn't be a reason why they couldn't be first and do it well. This would easily add $500B to their market cap.

It might not be in your best of interest to grow bigger infinitely.

 

[falainber]

Siri isn't the sum total of Apple's AI, not even close to it.

What else is there? Tim Cook?

 

[cjbryce]

There's a *chance* they can do auto-focal correction with the lenses

Oh, please, please let this be true

 

[Pete Rodgers]

AR on iPad and iPhone is pointless and no one wants to wear glasses. AR on contact lenses anyone?

 

[Cosmosent]

If Tim Cook was a smart man, he would focus AAPL 100% on moving to 10-bit color, & specifically, to the BGR10A2Unorm pixel format type !

Back in March of 2016, AAPL added support for their Display P3 "Wide Color" color space / gamut.

But to this day, nothing in regards to 10-bit color

Way overdue Tim Cook !

UN-like VR & AR, 10-bit color could be used EVERYWHERE !

The 10-year anniversary iPhone (X) should have been ALL-about 10-bit color !

Total Screw Up by Tim Cook !

If it wasn't for AAPL's Stock Buyback Program (artificially propping-up the company), Cook would have been Ousted Long Ago !

 

[seek3r]

AR -- the quadraphonics of the 21st Century. The technology will be adopted by a tiny group of true believers, cause endless industry and consumer debates resulting in multiple "standards", and in the end it will be forgotten.

The real potential is in things like manufacturing, industrial (and automotive) repair, civil engineering, medicine, etc where having a HUD and contextual data overlaid on your vision in realtime could be incredibly useful. I don't know if it will ever become truly consumer friendly, but there's a lot of real use cases for it beyond a novelty.

 

[Keirasplace]

If Tim Cook was a smart man, he would focus AAPL 100% on moving to 10-bit color, & specifically, to the BGR10A2Unorm pixel format type !

Back in March of 2016, AAPL added support for their Display P3 "Wide Color" color space / gamut.

But to this day, nothing in regards to 10-bit color

Way overdue Tim Cook !

UN-like VR & AR, 10-bit color could be used EVERYWHERE !

The 10-year anniversary iPhone (X) should have been ALL-about 10-bit color !

Total Screw Up by Tim Cook !

If it wasn't for AAPL's Stock Buyback Program (artificially propping-up the company), Cook would have been Ousted Long Ago !

Man, please sthu.

 

[jhfenton]

I think we are DECADES away, especially for mass adoption. Same thing with driverless cars, they will come out, but the majority of countries/cities/streets won’t be “compatible enough” to operate such cars.

I think in both case scenarios we are away 30-50 years into the future and maybe more...

I might give you 10-20 years, but 30-50 years or more is too pessimistic. Consider where we are compared to 1968 or 1988.

 

[kemal]

Great. Just don't make the lenses out of transparent aluminum.

 

[pianophile]

Oh, please, please let this be true

I wrote to Apple once, suggesting just such a product. *fingers crossed*

 

[urnotl33t]

Oh, please, please let this be true

Yep! You got it! That would be stellar.

 

[dfstock]

Can't wait!

 

[seek3r]

You seen Infinity War? Early on there is a scene where Robert Downey Jr pops on what I presume are supposed to be AR Glasses. I'll be damned if Jonny Ive didn't see that and asked who stole the mockups out of his White Room.

I'm personally hoping for an Aviator styling, although a design like your first one is more likely for a V1 until they can shrink the electronics/battery sufficiently. Anything that looks like Magic Leap is doomed.
[doublepost=1535632594][/doublepost]

Well, it worked out alright for them when they bought NeXT.

Come on, we all know NeXT bought Apple for -$400 Million

 

[StyxMaker]

Zero innovation. We have the money. Hell lets just buy it instead. The signature of modern Apple. Sad.

Apple has always bought the technology it needs, the NeXT OS for example

 

[DeepIn2U]

Battery life is so far the largest challenge. Who wants AR glasses that only lasts a few hours per day?

Current battery tech may not last more than 60mins. I see AR glasses as a projector to the Apple Watch being the full out computer.

More challenging is and will be navigation!

Gestures: How will the 'right' gestures be determined for a user in the UX/UI?
Regional based UI/UX gesture controls will only balloon the OS.
What is right in one country or culture may NOT be right in another.

- e.g. Shaking your head, laterally, side to side (as if to say "No" in English, American/British/Canadian culture may signal "No" yet in Pakistan it could signal "I'm not sure" or "I don't have an answer to that just yet (yet I'm responding to acknowledge your question)"
Thus shaking one's head as "No" in Britain/United States/Canada cannot be used as a Cancel command or dictation command for No.

movie: Creative Control did quite well on some proposed gestures, but you'll see far more odd stares or even inquisitive intrusions in public from those around you when you use the gesture "stugats" say in Italy when you're trying to drop down a menu list, close out a window, etc.​

 

[DeepIn2U]

Such a personal style choice. It will be hard to find what, maybe 3 different designs that will satisfy everyone.

Personally the only style of (Sun)glasses I wear or would wear, gotta be square frames and thick arms like -

Make those in space grey or black with clear lenses and I’m sold.

However the previous MCK rumor noted P3 style like -

No way.

The same could be said about watches:

Oval or rounded rectangle/square and also the bands (metal, synthetic rubber, metal, or mesh metal, or threaded leather, etc).

I’m sure when Apple is ready to debut thei AR glasses the above and following will be offered:

4 varies of Frame styles,
4 varies of frame sizes,
4 varies of frame arm thinkness which a huge supply will be available.
Prescription offerings - if not then a slick way of mounting securely over prescription lenses.

For those that use glass prescription as big or resembling like viewing through binoculars ... a recommendation to see your doctor for lasic/lazer eye surgery will be stated or simply Apple Glass will not be recommended at all.

Think of the premium line to look like that in the 2016 movie Creative Control.

 

[saxofunk]

Please please please let them look like this: