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Apple Working on AR/VR Headset Technology to Help People With Eye Diseases

I wouldn't be surprised if soon Apple announces the creation of a dedicated Health division, probably with a spin-off to a separate subsidiary of Apple Inc. dedicated exclusively on developing medical devices. Some of these devices may eventually end up implemented in some way or form into consumer-grade products, but in any case it open the doors for Apple to a huge new market. If Elon Musk could venture into building cars, rockets and medical devices, I don't see why Apple should limit its resources and capital on just creating computers, smartphones and basic consumer electronics, especially when in the recent years it accumulated a huge amount of industry experts and know-how in the medical field but its hands are tied by FDA.
 
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antiprotest said:
Full spectrum color 8K x-ray vision when?
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x-ray_specs__1_.jpg
 
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ahhh yes, this mythical headset that no one has ever seen but heard plenty about. It would not surprise me to see a headline 'Apple working on AR/VR headset technology that can help cure the common cold'.
 
Real-time subtitles can help people with auditive challenges. Voice-to-text, plus some image recognition to help with focusing on speaker. I think we will see it within 5 years.

And before that I hope to replace my (very expensive, not covered by any insurance / medicare) hearing aid with a cheaper and hopefully better device from Apple.
 
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Definitely looking forward to the distant future where the lens I'm wearing essentially replace holding a glass display in my hand.
 
pelegri said:
Real-time subtitles can help people with auditive challenges. Voice-to-text, plus some image recognition to help with focusing on speaker. I think we will see it within 5 years.
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Unfortunately though, there doesn't seem to be any significant advances taking place in the quality of voice recognition. Especially not for real speech / conversation. Sure they do OK with slow, deliberate, well-enunciated speech. But watch how well they work today on conversation. There is a reason why stenographers are still in business.
 
Most readers cannot know that Apple's support for blind and visual impaired users in iOS, iPadOS and macOS clearly exceeds Microsoft's and Alphabet's efforts. While it is fair to say, that Microsoft is committed to this user group as well, however, with specialised apps such as Seeing AI. But in terms of seamless, native accessibility Apple is by far leading the pack, and I am grateful to them every time I use my iPhone, iPad or Mac.
Therefore I am very much looking forward to this initiative.
 
michaelprescott said:
I'd love glasses that would help with night-vision and glare reduction. Seems like the entire tech stack is available and the form factor is nearly acceptable. Apple should be able to iterate it into the next generation.
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These are garbage stories.

If you have eye diseases you will still have eye diseases looking at a display.

Your eyes can’t miraculously and magically be healed. It’s not the same as vision correction lenses.

Literally every 5 days we get idiots in the media giving magical properties to language models and entertainment headsets.
 
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enterthemerdaverse said:
These are garbage stories.

If you have eye diseases you will still have eye diseases looking at a display.

Your eyes can’t miraculously and magically be healed. It’s not the same as vision correction lenses.

Literally every 5 days we get idiots in the media giving magical properties to language models and entertainment headsets.
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True, but that's not what this story is about -- it's for filling in information our eyes can't "see", be it with text for a part of the eye does see, audible, or tactile response. It's possible to help!

Take me, I have Duane Syndrome (among other non-eye problems), and what it is, is that my eye don't focus together, and indeed, don't even point the same way. When I'm looking left, the left eye turn in and the right eye is the one looking left, and vice versa. So I see out of one eye at a time basically. That means no 3D vision, so judging distances up close where perspective doesn't give enough information is HARD. Now if I had a pair of specs that showed the distance to nearby objects if one of my eyes is looking at it would be a killer use, and I'd spend a lot of money for it.

And there's no reason something like this couldn't replace prescription glasses replacing the video in for the correct prescription for any particular time. People that have varied eye pressure can have their prescription needs change all the time.

Anyway, it's still a long ways away, but the blind will "see" eventually, as well as all us other non-perfect eyed people...
 
Lounge vibes 05 said:
As a member of that tiny segment of the market, it’s very important to Apple.
Apple created and maintains some of the best accessibility features for visually impaired people.
Features like voiceover, voice control, AssistiveTouch and others literally change how the operating system actually works, so they absolutely were not free to develop.
Voice Over is particularly complex, completely changing the entire layout of the operating systems, and how everything works.
And yet, it’s been a feature in macOS since 2005, iOS since 2009, and the Apple TV, Apple Watch, and HomePod since they first launched.
So… I don’t think Apple would agree with your assessment that features for low vision and blind users are “not a prime mover.”
In fact, given that the feature set grows and grows every year for accessibility, I’d say that you’re way off the mark with that statement.
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With the baby boomers moving into their elder years this "tiny" market is fit to grow immensely. I took care of my grandparents for years and saw them struggle with hearing and vision loss. The solutions were limited and expensive. $7k for hearing aids!

The AirPods Pro have already shown in several studies that they can operate as a low cost hearing aid. Might be limited now but will surely improve in the coming years.

The Apple Watch is already a great health monitor and fall detector. Add in blood pressure and glucose monitoring in the coming years and you have a doctor on your wrist.

These glasses are just one more foray into this world. Really great to see and definitely takes some of the stress off of seeing my parents getting old.
 
Jensend said:
There are people who find some displays uncomfortable to use because of PWM. All VR displays use low persistence—they only flash the image for a fraction of the frame time. That will inevitably bother some users of this product, even if they don't know why.

But what should they do? Not release it until everybody can use it with no issues, even if it means delaying it for those who could benefit from it as the tech stands now?
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Nah; it's the fact they're tossing out a rumour of helping eye health. Fair enough you gotta release, but it seems very fishy that they're saying this. It's like a "cigarettes have health benefits" feel when I read it.

I don't care if it got dumped on by commenters. I stand by it; this is contrarianism in advance.
 
So Apple uses OLED and all sorts of LED technologies so a subset of users cannot use those techs because of their eye conditions. Instead of trying to remedy that, Apple decides to introduce new techs that are guaranteed to be deployed with those very same technology that causes eye strain in the first place.
We shall see how all of these pans out.
 
macsplusmacs said:
Here you go:

Settings > Accessibility >
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Those are not devices, but software settings. I am not aware of Apple ever releasing a device specifically for medical purposes.

Classic Apple = releasing devices for the masses and making sure they’re inclusive.

A medical device would be the opposite of classic Apple. Not saying it’s bad. Just saying it’s not classic Apple.
 
I will save any possible praise for when a product designed specifically to address health and disability problems is actually released. Praising Apple solely based on a rumor without any real detail seems rather myopic and rather nearsighted at this point.
 
Lounge vibes 05 said:
If they did that you’d be complaining that the notification center is on the right side now and it’s so unfair that left-handed people can’t access their notifications as easily as right handed people.
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Why would changing the gesture for accessing Control Center have any impact on the position of the Notification Center? Even if such a weird compromise were made, it still wouldn't compare to the awkwardness that left-handed users face with the diagonal swipe from the upper right corner. If you had attempted this gesture from a left-handed standpoint, you would understand.
 
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The brightness sensor is suddenly not working on my nearly $2000 Studio Display.

No reboot is fixing this. Who the hell ships monitors with software only controls and impossible to find diagnostics to see what’s wrong with the sensor?

With that in mind, who the hell with more than a brain cell thinks this VR AR XR headset is going to be reliable for people with “eye disease” or anyone else when it has so many sensors that can fail?
 
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