Apple – Page 5 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

July 4, 2023

Apple Reportedly Has No Plans to Make or Support VR Controllers for Vision Pro

If a recent Bloomberg report from Mark Gurman holds true, not only is Apple not planning to release a motion controller for Vision Pro in the future, but it may not even support third-party VR controllers at all.

When the Cupertino tech giant unveiled Vision Pro last month, it didn’t emphasize the headset’s ability to potentially support VR games, which have typically been designed around motion controllers like Meta Touch or Valve’s Index controller for SteamVR headsets.

Among Vision Pro’s lineup of content, which features a standard suite of Apple ecosystem and standard content viewing apps, the studio only off showed a single VR app, Rec Room, the prolific social VR app that supports most major VR headsets (excluding PSVR 2 for now) in addition to consoles, desktop, and both iOS and Android mobile devices.

Mark Gurman, one of the leading journalists reporting on unreleased Apple tech, maintains that Apple is neither actively planning a dedicated controller, nor planning support for third-party VR accessories.

When the $3,500 headset launches in early 2024, this would leave Vision Pro users relying on the headset’s built-in hand and eye-tracking, which admittedly worked very well in our hands-on. It’s also using Siri-driven voice input, Bluetooth and Mac keyboard support, and PlayStation 5 and Xbox controllers for traditional flatscreen games.

For VR gaming though, hand and eye-tracking lack the haptic feedback required for many game genres, meaning what VR games do come to Vision Pro will likely require overhauls to make sure hand-tracking is fully baked in.

Provided Apple sticks with its purported internal plan to not support VR controllers, that would essentially shunt development away from VR gaming and towards the headset’s AR abilities. For Apple, that’s where the ‘real’ money presumably lies.

Denny Unger, founder and lead of pioneering VR studio Cloudhead Games, explains the move as a way to provide a strong development foundation now for Apple’s AR glasses of the future, which will be both more affordable and more capable of replacing a standard smartphone than the admittedly bulky MR headsets of today.

For more from Unger, who heads one of the most successful VR studios, check out his Road to VR guest article to learn more about Vision Pro and why Apple may be launching an AR headset in VR clothing.

July 3, 2023

Apple Reportedly Cuts Production Targets for Vision Pro Due to Manufacturing Complexity

Apple has allegedly slashed production targets for Vision Pro due to manufacturing issues related to the mixed reality headset’s complex design, a Financial Times report maintains.

Unveiled during Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in early June, the $3,500 Vision Pro represents the first big step into XR for the company. Launching sometime next year, Vision Pro is a high-end headset that combines virtual reality displays with color passthrough cameras, allowing it to do both VR and AR tasks.

Apple’s China-based contract manufacturer Luxshare, allegedly the sole assembler of the device, is now preparing to make fewer than 400,000 units of Vision Pro in 2024, according to the report, which cites “multiple people with direct knowledge of the manufacturing process,” including sources close to Apple and Luxshare.

Supply chain rumors also allege that two of Apple’s China-based component suppliers only have enough parts to produce around 130,000 to 150,000 Vision Pro units in the first year. It was previously thought Apple was operating with an internal 12-month sales target of one million units.

Manufacturing complications apparently hinge on Vision Pro’s micro-OLED displays and outward-facing, curved lenticular display, the latter of which allows a sort of digital passthrough view of the user’s eyes.

In our hands-on, we noted Vision Pro packed top of its class lenses and displays, something Apple says is “more than a 4K TV for each eye.”

The company is reportedly unhappy with supplier productivity. It’s said the most expensive component is its internal displays, and getting enough of those micro-OLEDs to be defect-free has purportedly been a significant hurdle. Additionally, Financial Times reports the micro-OLED displays used in the headsets demoed to press at its June launch were supplied by Sony and the chipmaker TSMC.

Meanwhile, Apple is said to be working with Samsung and LG on a second-gen version of the headset, which will be reportedly cheaper than the first, which is launching sometime in 2024 for $3,500.

June 29, 2023

Oculus Founder Explains What Apple Got Right & Wrong on Vision Pro

Apple Vision Pro is about to set a lot of expectations in the industry of what’s ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ about mixed reality, something the fruit company prefers to call spatial computing. Oculus founder Palmer Luckey weighed in on his thoughts, and coming from one of the main figures who kicked off the VR revolution of today, it means something.

Speaking to Peter Diamandis in a nearly two hour-long podcast, Luckey delved into many areas of his work over the years, touching on the role at his defense company Anduril, his role in kickstarting the modern era of VR, and basically everything under the Sun that the tech entrepreneur is doing, or thinks about when it comes to augmented and virtual reality.

Undoubtedly the hottest of hot button issues is whether Apple is doing mixed reality ‘right’ as a newcomer to the space. Luckey is mostly positive about Vision Pro, saying it’s patently Apple.

“I think there were things that I would do differently if I were Apple,” Luckey tells Diamandis. “They did basically everything right—they didn’t do anything terrible. I mean, I think Apple is going after the exact right segment of the market that Apple should be going after.”

Luckey maintains that if Apple went after the low end of the market, it would be “a mistake,” saying the Cupertino tech giant is taking “the exact approach that I had always wanted Apple to take, and really the approach that Oculus had been taking in the early years.”

Apple is admittedly going at XR with little regard for affordability, but that’s not the sticking point you might think it would be. To him, the $3,500 headset packs the best components for the premium segment, including “the highest possible resolution, the highest quality possible displays, the best possible ergonomics.”

In fact, Apple’s first-gen device shouldn’t be about affordability at this point, Luckey says. It’s about “inspiring lust in a much larger group of people, who, as I dreamed all those years ago, see VR as something they desperately want before it becomes something they can afford.”

In the world of component configurations, there’s very little that catches Luckey off guard, although Vision Pro’s tethered battery ‘puck’ was choice that surprised the Oculus founder a little bit. When it comes to offloading weight from the user’s head, Luckey says shipping a battery puck was the “right way to do things.”

“I was a big advocate of [external pucks] in Oculus, but unfortunately it was a battle that I lost in my waning years, and [Oculus] went all in on putting all batteries, all the processing in actual headset itself. And not just in the headset, but in the front of the headset itself, which hugely increases the weight of the front of the device, the asymmetric torque load… it’s not a good decision.”

One direction Apple has going that Luckey isn’t a fan of: controllers, or rather, the lack thereof. Vision Pro is set to ship without any sort of VR motion controller, which means developers will need to target hand and eye-tracking as the primary input methods.

“It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of VR input, and I think that’s probably one of the things I would have done differently than Apple. On the other hand, they have a plan for VR input that goes beyond just the finger [click] inputs. They’re taking a focused marketing approach, but I think they have a broader vision for the future than everything just being eyes and fingers.”

Luckey supports the company’s decision to split the headset into a puck and head-worn device not only for Vision Pro in the near term, but also for future iterations of the device, which will likely need more batteries, processing, and antennas. Setting those expectations now of a split configuration could help Apple move lighter and thinner on head-worn components, and never even deal with the problems of balancing the girth and weight seen in the all-in-one, standalone headsets of today.

In the end, whether the average person will wear such things in the future will ultimately come down to clever marketing, Luckey maintains, as it’s entirely possible to slim down to thinner form factors, but devices may not be nearly as functional at sizes smaller than “chunky sunglasses”. To Luckey, companies like Apple have their work cut out for them when it comes to normalizing these AR/VR headsets of the near future, and Apple will most definitely be seeding their devices on the heads of “the right celebrities, the right influencers” in the meantime.

You can check out the full 15-minute clip where Luckey talks about his thoughts on Apple Vision Pro below:

June 26, 2023

New data shows VR interest continues to fall

(Image by Maria Korolov via Midjourney.)

New research reports and surveys released this month show that interest in virtual and augmented reality is continuing to drop.

According to an EY Consulting survey released earlier this month, only 24 percent of people said their company has started using VR and AR technologies, putting it in last place among all technologies people were asked about. Those other technologies included cloud and edge computing, IoT, digital twins, quantum computing, biometrics, blockchain, and generative AI. And that’s with quantum computers not even available on the market yet and generative AI only really becoming accessible to the world late last year.

Similarly, even among people who were familiar with VR technology, only 15 percent said that they wear a VR headset at work, only 17 percent said they attend meetings in the metaverse, and only 18 percent use VR for onboarding or training. The survey didn’t ask if they did those things on a regular basis, or tried them once and stopped.

According to a report by research firm IDC, global shipments of AR and VR headsets dropped sharply this year — a decline of 54 percent compared to the same time in 2022.

The only growth was in augmented reality displays — the kind with transparent lenses, where you can see the real world, just with a holographic overlay over it. The top example of this are the Air AR glasses from Xreal. They can project a TV screen or computer monitor into the air in front of you, and look just like sunglasses. You connect them via a USB-C port to your smartphone or tablet, or to a PC or gaming console. You can even order them with prescription lenses. And they cost just $379 — still a little on the high side but about as much as you’d pay for a second monitor, and only about a tenth of the price of Apple’s yet-to-be-released Apple Vision Pro headset.

Xreal Air AR glasses. (Image courtesy Xreal.)

Right now they only come in black and look a little clunky. But, in general, this is what I expected the Apple headset to be — a replacement display for the iPhone screen that was as easy to use as a pair of sunglasses. Add a few design options, a Bluetooth connection, and a case that doubles as a charger and I’m sold — especially if the resolution of the display is good enough to read text.

Oh, and I want the kind of lenses that automatically turn lighter or darker when you want them to. If they could replace my regular glasses, I could just wear them all the time.

Some companies are continuing to invest in AR and VR. J. Crew, for example, launched a virtual store earlier this month.

When you go inside the house, it’s basically a typical real estate or museum tour — click on the arrows to teleport around, then look in various directions. For the most part, it’s walls with pictures of items from the J. Crew catalog. A bit less pleasant to experience than the paper version, and a lot less convenient than its regular online shopping experience.

Frankly, it reminded me a bit of in-world stores in Second Life and OpenSim.

And I’m not the only one who wasn’t impressed.

According to a YouGov survey, 45 percent of J. Crew customers don’t see any practical applications for augmented or virtual reality.

The survey also shows that 67 percent of the retailer’s customers think that augmented or virtual reality allows people to experience products and services before they buy them. Since that statement is technically true — augmented and virtual reality does allow that, for a certain definition of the word “experience” — I’m surprised that the answer wasn’t 100 percent.

The thing is, many retailers are already adding virtual models to their websites, so you can see what the clothes might look like on you, or on a model that’s shaped like you. No AR or VR required.

In other words, AR and VR have all the inconveniences of physical stores — limited selection, hard to find what you’re looking for — with none of the benefits like, say, being able to feel the fabric, checking that the shoes or clothes don’t pinch or itch, or buying a Cinnabon in the food court after you’ve finished shopping as a reward for surviving the ordeal.

June 21, 2023

Apple Releases Vision Pro Development Tools and Headset Emulator

Apple has released new and updated tools for developers to begin building XR apps on Apple Vision Pro.

Apple Vision Pro isn’t due out until early 2024, but the company wants developers to get a jump-start on building apps for the new headset.

To that end the company announced today it has released the visionOS SDK, updated Xcode, Simulator, and Reality Composer Pro, which developers can get access to at the Vision OS developer website.

While some of the tools will be familiar to Apple developers, tools like Simulator and Reality Composer Pro are newly released for the headset.

Simulator is the Apple Vision Pro emulator, which aims to give developers a way to test their apps before having their hands on the headset. The tool effectively acts as a software version of Apple Vision Pro, allowing developers see how their apps will render and act on the headset.

Reality Composer Pro is aimed at making it easy for developers to build interactive scenes with 3D models, sounds, and textures. From what we understand, it’s sort of like an easier (albeit less capable) alternative to Unity. However, developers who already know or aren’t afraid to learn a full-blown game engine can also use Unity to build visionOS apps.

In addition to the release of the visionOS SDK today, Apple says it’s still on track to open a handful of ‘Developer Labs’ around the world where developers can get their hands on the headset and test their apps. The company also says developers will be able to apply to receive Apple Vision Pro development kits next month.

June 9, 2023

The Best Thing About Apple Vision Pro? Meta Finally Has Big Competition

Meta has undeniably been the lone looming Goliath in a field of smaller Davids in the XR scene for years now. With Apple finally making its entrance into the market, Meta won’t be able to go at its own pace.

Apple’s new headset might be an absurd $3,500, putting it in a completely different class than Meta’s upcoming Quest 3 at $500, let alone the Quest 2 now at $300. But the pressure will still be on as comparisons are made between the experience Apple has crafted and what Meta offers.

After all, there’s no denying that while the Vision Pro is packed full of hardware, and has the benefit of Apple’s proprietary and powerful M2 chips, so much of what the headset is doing right is about the software experience rather than the fidelity that’s unlocked with the hardware.

Great Hardware, Struggling Software

The thing is, Meta’s headsets are plenty capable. Quest 2 is still a solid product that is in many ways still best in class and Quest 3 only promises to up the ante later this year with more power, higher resolution, improved lenses, and better passthrough AR. Meta’s hardware has always been quite impressive, even as far back as the original Oculus Rift CV1.

But on the software side the company has seriously struggled to make usability a priority. For all the lessons the company learned about the power of reducing friction in VR—by building a standalone headset that doesn’t need a computer or external tracking beacons—there has been seemingly little emphasis on making the same reduction in friction by creating a cohesive interface between Quest’s system interface, and Meta’s own first-party apps; let alone providing a set of clear and useful guidelines so that developers and users alike can benefit from a common user experience.

Lean on Me

Meta has leaned substantially on third-party developers to make using its headsets worthwhile to use. Game developers have done the painstaking work of refining how users should control their apps and interact with their worlds in entertaining ways. When you’re inside of a VR game, the developer is fully controlling the experience to make it cohesive and enjoyable, while sussing out the pitfalls that would turn off users—like bugs, convoluted menus, and inconsistent interactions.

If Meta’s headsets didn’t have games—but still did everything else they’re capable of—they would be dead in the water because of how painful it can be to use the headset outside of carefully crafted game experiences designed to entertain. On the other hand, Apple Vision Pro has a minimal emphasis on gaming (at least at the outset), but is spending significant effort to make everything else the headset does easy and consistent. By doing so, Apple is ensuring that the headset will be great for more than just gaming.

Despite the price difference between Vision Pro and Quest headsets, Meta is still going to have to stare this thing in the face and come to grips with what it could be doing better—for users, developers, and itself. The good news, at least, is that much of the room for improvement is in the software side of things.

The Vacuum

Until now, Meta has had no serious competition in this space. Its headsets—despite the criticisms I’ve laid out here—have consistently offered the best value in their class, with great hardware and a great game library, all at a very attractive price that others have largely been unable to match.

That’s made it hard for other headset makers to compete and left Meta little need to respond even if other companies do something better or innovative. It’s also meant that developers and users have very little leverage over what Meta decides to do—after all, where else are they going to go if they want an affordable standalone headset with the best library of content?

Meta has been able to create a vacuum in the consumer VR space which on the surface might look like success… but in reality, it has left Meta unfocused on what it needs to do to make its headsets appeal to a broader audience.

Better for Everyone

Now we have Apple in the game, ready to challenge Meta on hardware and the software experience. Price advantage is clearly in Meta’s favor, but it’s going to need to up its game, otherwise it risks losing not just customers, but more importantly developers, who might see greener grass on the other side—especially if they’re looking forward to a future where Apple’s headset comes down in price.

Apple’s entrance into the market might seem like a threat, but ultimately Meta now gets to sit back and examine all the hard work Apple has done over the years, then choose the best ideas to incorporate into its own offerings, while ignoring what it sees as missteps by Apple.

In the end, Apple’s headset is going to force Meta’s headsets to get better, faster. And that’s good for everyone, including Meta.

June 8, 2023

Apple Vision Pro Debrief on the Voices of VR Podcast

Apple’s announcement of Vision Pro is reverberating throughout the industry. Beyond just a new headset, the company’s entrance into the space introduces new ideas that are now being discussed around the tech-sphere. To dig further into what Apple Vision Pro means for the XR industry more broadly, I spoke with host Kent Bye on the Voices of VR podcast.

Kent Bye has been consistently documenting the XR space since 2014 through his prolific podcast, Voices of VR, which now spans more than 1,200 episodes.

Over the years I’ve had the fortune of joining Bye on the podcast during pivotal moments in the XR industry. With the long-awaited release of Apple Vision Pro, it was once again time for a check-in; you can listen here to episode #1,217 of the Voices of VR podcast.

Beyond my previously published hands-on impressions with the headset, our discussion on the podcast covers some of the broader implications of Apple Vision Pro, including how the company’s ecosystem plays a major role in the value of the headset, whether or not the headset’s ergonomics are aligned with its use-case vision, and the ways in which Apple’s entrance into the space feels like a reboot of the industry at large.

Bye also interviewed several others for their takes and impressions of Apple Vision Pro. You can check out episode #1,216 to hear from Sarah Hill, CEO of Healium, and Raven Zachary, COO of ARound; episode #1,218 with Ian Hamilton, Editor at UploadVR; and episode #1,219 with Scott Stein, Editor at CNET.

Voices of VR is a listener-supported podcast; if you like what you hear, you can support Bye’s work on Patreon.

June 7, 2023

I was very disappointed in Apple this week

In April, I wrote that I had high expectations for Apple’s new augmented reality headset — and that I was looking forward to switching back to the iPhone if it was what I hoped for.

I was very much disappointed by the actual announcement on Monday.

You can watch the headset part of the presentation below:

The price tag. OMG, the price tag

Really? $3,500? Really? I’m a writer, so I’ve owned cars that cost less than that.

If we assume that prices will drop in half every year, it will take four years to get down to what I would consider a reasonable price — around $200. Unless, of course, it can work as a phone replacement, in which case, it might be down to a reasonable $875 in two years.

Not available until next year

Did I say two years? I meant three years — because this thing won’t be available until 2024.

Which means if it’s an add-on, and not a phone replacement, it will take five years to get down to a reasonable $200.

The size. Look at the size.

This thing is huge. I want my augmented reality headset to be a pair of sunglasses. Especially since this thing is connected by a cord to a battery pack you wear. If it’s connected by a cord to something anyway, might as well connect it to a phone — or a pack that has the processor in it, so that the headset itself can be a lot smaller.

Also, this feels like it’s meant to be a work productivity tool. That means that the cord could be connecting it to a computer. Again, you can move the chips out of the headset itself and make it lighter.

The creepy eye display.

When you look at someone wearing one of these headsets, you’ll be able to see their eyes and where they are looking. Not because the display is transparent — but because the entire outside surface is a display screen that shows you a video of the person’s eyes.

It is super creepy. To me, at least.

Also, it seems like such a waste of processing and display just to show a pair of eyes. If you want to have a headset where you can see the user’s eyes, just have a clear-glass headset where you can see the user’s eyes.

The pass-through camera.

And clear glass goes the other way, too.

As far as I’m concerned, in order to use an augmented reality headset for anything, you need to have clear lenses. That way, you can see your surroundings, with the augmented reality stuff as an overlay on top.

This is what I thought the Apple headset was going to look like:

Plus, when clear-glass headset is turned off, you can still use it as a regular pair of glasses or sunglasses. I currently wear glasses. Being able to have them do double-duty as a phone display screen would be excellent.

Instead, Apple decided to make the headset opaque, and to use cameras to try to trick you into thinking that you’re seeing out of them to the room around you.

Now, according to Mike Rockwell, head of Apple’s AR/VR team, their headset chips are so good that it “virtually eliminates lag.”

It’s that “virtually” that gets to me. Virtually? So there will be lag between what happens around me, and what I’m seeing in the headset? That’s the kind of fake augmented reality I hate in the headsets I already own, like Meta’s Quest.

I really wanted to have transparent lenses — like the old Google Glass headset, but better looking, and with better functionality and usability.

Google Glass. Image by Mikepanhu via Wikimedia Commons.)

Now, maybe Apple will be able to fully eliminate lag by the time people start to actually use the headset three to five years from now, but, today, I’m disappointed.

Even better, when I actually buy this thing they will have figured out a way to use clear glass. The technology is there already — glass that can programmatically go from opaque to transparent and show projected images on it.

Or they’ll have made the cameras so responsive that any lag is completely eliminated, not just “virtually.”

Not a phone replacement

Because this is a bulky headset with short battery life and a cord — and not a pair of sunglasses you can whip on and off — this is not a headset that is going to replace your phone screen.

And if it doesn’t replace my phone, then I’m not going to be using it all the time. Which means I’ll be using it the way I use my VR headsets today — infrequently. And when I use things infrequently, I forget how they work between sessions.

This means that I’m reluctant to use the headset instead of, say, just a regular Zoom meeting. Which means I use it even less often, until, eventually, it just sits there gathering dust on my shelf. I’m not about to pay $3,500 for a paperweight.

June 6, 2023

Apple’s Vision Pro VR is incredible technology but is it useful?

The new product is far ahead of its competition; however, it is not clear that there is a pressing need for it or that most people can afford it

As people begin to report on their hands-on time with Apple’s Vision Pro VR headset, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the company has produced an incredible piece of hardware.

Even in limited demonstrations, users have praised the company’s extraordinary work producing the two postage-stamp-sized screens that sit in each eyepiece and pack in more pixels than a 4K TV; they’ve been stunned by the quality of the “passthrough” video, which shows wearers what’s happening in the outside world in enough detail that they can even use their phones while wearing the headset; and they’ve been impressed by the casual ease with which the gesture controls on the new hardware work, with an array of infrared cameras letting users make small and subtle hand movements to select and scroll rather than relying on bulky controllers.

June 6, 2023

TechScape: Is Apple’s $3,500 Vision Pro more than just another tech toy for the rich?

There’s a disconnect between the eye-watering price of Apple’s new ‘spatial computing’ gadget and the promise of it – but it has some genuinely novel features

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Yesterday, Apple finally confirmed the worst-kept secret in Silicon Valley, and announced the Vision Pro, its $3,499 virtual reality headset. From our story:

The headset allows users to interact with “apps and experiences”, the Apple vice-president of human interface design, Alan Dye, said, in an augmented reality (AR) version of their own surroundings or in a fully immersive virtual reality (VR) space.

“Apple Vision Pro relies solely on your eyes, hands and voice,” Dye said. “You browse the system simply by looking. App icons come to life when you look at them; simply tap your fingers together to select, and gently flick to scroll.”

EyeSight, which sounded so ridiculous, could actually … work? A curved, outward-facing OLED screen displays the wearer’s eyes to the outside world, giving the impression of the headset as a simple piece of translucent glass. The screen mists over if the wearer is in a fully immersive VR space, while allowing people to have (simulated, at least) eye contact when in AR mode.

An array of downward and outward-pointing IR cameras let the headset keep track of your position and gestures at all times, allowing the company to build a controller-free experience without requiring the wearer to hold their hands in their eye-line when using the headset.

An AI-powered “persona” (don’t call it an avatar) stands in for you when you make a video call using the Vision Pro. It’s a photorealistic attempt to animate a real picture of you, using the data the headset captures of your eye, mouth and hand movements while you talk. Even in the staged demos, it looked slightly uncanny, but it seems a far smaller hurdle to introduce into the world than trying to encourage people to have business meetings with their Memoji.

Should VR headsets have a bulky battery mounted on your head, or should they rely on a tethered cable to a separate PC? Apple thinks there’s a third option: slip the bulky battery in your back pocket, and run the cable up to a lighter, more comfortable set of goggles. It could work. Or it could be the worst of both worlds: a cable that still inhibits movement and comfort, with none of the power of a real tethered VR system. Hey, not all novelty is a slam-dunk.