Specs, software, could help it break the VR curse

appleThe new Vision Pro headset has sparked a new interest in head-worn computers that immerse users in a virtual world.

Engineers have been dreaming of virtual reality Since 1968 When a professor at the University of Utah built the first 3D virtual reality headset, some of the most powerful consumer electronics companies have since released headsets, including Nintendo, Microsoft, Meta, Google, and Sony. Nothing was hit.

Now Apple is on the table and virtual reality experts and developers say it has a chance to succeed where others have not.

“When people ask me what’s really special about this ad, in a word, it’s Apple. The world’s largest technology company and also the most responsible,” said Uri Inbar, co-founder of Superventures and CEO of Augmented World Expo, of the industry conference. “They always put everything behind every product they put out there. And that’s exactly the message they’re sending to the XR industry, but also to everyone else out there.”

Apple’s reputation and track record gives it the benefit of the doubt when it comes to really new technologies, and many consumers already own and love Apple products.

Apple commercialized the success of multi-touch screens with the iPhone, transforming the smartphone industry by showing the world a new way to interact with phones. It may be able to replicate this in the virtual reality industry with Vision Pro’s gesture and voice-based user interface. Unlike other headphones, it does not require a controller.

“Part of Apple’s influence is that they’ve built ownership of this brand, they’ve done it over and over again, across multiple categories, whether it’s the watch, the music player, and of course the smartphone,” said Tipatat Chenavasin, general partner at Venture Reality Fund. “What I think is really interesting about it as well, is that they’ve clearly laid out their vision for the future — this is the next iPhone, the next big platform.”

Apple Vision Pro is far more powerful than almost all competing products on the market. It’s equipped with two high definition displays, a battery of cameras and sensors, and custom processors that reduce latency and lag. Simply put: it can do more than any other headphone.

And the increased horsepower under Apple’s glasses has enabled a relatively new concept, sometimes called “XR,” “mixed reality,” “transitability,” or, as Apple calls it, “spatial computing.”

Cameras on the outside of the Vision Pro can display the real world in near real time inside the headset, which makes the technology less isolating, and addresses one long-standing problem with VR: Users can’t see what’s around them while they’re in VR.

But Apple also has to change the public perception of virtual reality. The moment when everyday consumers wear headphones on a daily basis may still be years away.

One notable aspect of Apple’s Vision Pro is that it packs a lot of raw power and expensive parts. Previous early Apple products did not emphasize processor speed, display resolution, or specifications.

Vision Pro works. A short and incomplete list of its components that we know so far:

• Two Micro-OLED screens measuring about an inch in diameter, each with a resolution that exceeds that of a 4K television.
• An Apple M2 processor – the same as in a laptop – and a specialized R1 processor for cameras and other visuals.
• eye tracking
• Six microphones
• 12 cameras and five sensors to monitor hand gestures

All of these specs combined mean that the Apple Vision Pro runs at a higher resolution than products currently on the market, such as the $299 Meta Quest 2, which use a mobile processor and lower-resolution screens.

It also costs a lot more: It costs as little as $3,499, possibly more if users opt for custom lenses or other potential upgrades, like storage.

The Vision Pro’s powerful specifications allow the outside world to be projected through a video feed inside the headset in real time, making it the first device to do high-quality VR, which takes users into a virtual world, and AR, which integrates virtual objects into the real world.

“Apple seems to be all in on the idea that it’s going to let you see, but it’s going to let you see camera usage, transit, very, very, very low latency, very, very powerful computing,” said Avi Greengart, an analyst at Techsponential, who demoed the headset earlier this year. Week on Apple Campus, “Problem Remediation Applied”.

This compares to competing devices such as the Magic Leap and Microsoft Hololens, which use transparent screens, which require less processing power but offer lower-quality images.

This level of visual quality means that the demos could be better, and that developers don’t have to limit themselves based on hardware. There is room for new experiments that require a great deal of processing power.

It also lays the groundwork for VR experiences going forward: Once people try a headset from Apple, with thousands of dollars in computing equipment, it’ll be hard to go with a cheaper headset without seeing the tradeoffs.

“Apple says unapologetically, in order to do virtual reality, or augmented reality, or what they call ‘spatial computing,’ that’s the experience you need to deliver, and that’s the price point it’s going to cost,” Greengart said. This price will simply be dismissed as a decent place. But Apple, because of its history with consumer products, because of its iterative history, you can expect the experience to improve over time, and the price is coming down — well, I hope it will come down.”

Eye tracking often uses small sensors to figure out where the user’s gaze is resting. It works well, according to people who caught hands-on demos earlier this week. “The Meta headset has a similar feature, but it doesn’t perform nearly as well as it does on the Apple Vision, if it works at all,” CNBC’s Steve Kovac writes.