“Apple has hired one of the top US researchers in virtual reality, as it looks to catch up to Facebook, Alphabet, Microsoft and Samsung in what many see as the next big shift in computing platforms,” Tim Bradshaw reports for The Financial Times.
“Doug Bowman recently joined Apple after going on sabbatical from his post as computer science professor at Virginia Tech, where he had been director of its centre for human-computer interaction for around five years,” Bradshaw reports. “His experience spans both fully immersive VR, as used in Facebook’s Oculus Rift and HTC’s Vive headsets, as well as augmented reality, where transparent visors such as Microsoft’s Hololens, Google Glass and secretive start-up Magic Leap mingle digital images with the real world still visible.”
“Mr Bowman is highly regarded by his peers in academia and has won several industry prizes for his work in VR and 3D interfaces in the last few years,” Bradshaw reports. “In November, he and a Virginia Tech colleague were also among the first recipients of a $100,000 research grant from Microsoft for using its Hololens headset, for a study on ‘collaborative analysis of large-scale mixed reality data.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
SEE ALSO:
Apple is building a virtual reality supply chain with disruptive potential, new research shows – November 19, 2015
Analyst: Apple team exploring virtual reality/augmented reality – August 31, 2015
Apple exploring a new reality with purchase of Metaio – June 3, 2015
Apple patents perforated augmented reality display that you can see and hear through – May 29, 2015
Apple acquires augmented reality company Metaio – May 28, 2015
New Apple haptics patent application reveals diamond-layered trackpad that simulates wood, other textures – April 23, 2015
Apple granted U.S. patent for hybrid VR head-mounted display – February 18, 2015
Apple is working on VR user interfaces and gaming; looking for Oculus and Leap experts – February 10, 2015
Apple granted patent for display-based speakers for iOS devices – January 13, 2015
Apple granted a patent for devices with a transparent display – November 18, 2014
Apple’s new iPhones, iPads could feature haptic displays – June 30, 2014
Apple patent application reveals personal display headset invention – May 8, 2014
Apple patent application reveals wildly intelligent multi-tiered haptics system – May 3, 2012
Apple continues to tweak Apple TV video headset accessory – April 10, 2014
Apple patent application reveals sapphire flexible transparent display devices created with Liquidmetal – December 19, 2013
Apple granted knockout patent for head-mounted personal display – December 10, 2013
iGlasses: Apple granted patent for head-mounted augmented reality displays – July 5, 2012
Apple files patent application for haptic feedback touch-based user interface – March 22, 2012
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “John Moore” for the heads up.]
Better late than never.
“Apple has hired one of the top US researchers in virtual reality, as it looks to catch up to Facebook, Alphabet, Microsoft and Samsung”
I see you have fallen for the negative jibe at Apple.
Apple have had VR patents going back well over 10 years that I can remember. No one has a clue what apple has cooking in their labs Just because they haven’t shown anything, everyone automatically assumes they are behind. Apple engineers could be laughing their asses off every time they see Oculus, Hololens and others being demonstrated.
That demo of building a 3D model of a drone in Hololens and sending the model of to manufacturing was pure bullshit.
Then again Apple engineers could be quaking in their boots.
We just don’t know.
Exactly, surely people by now realise that unlike others who spend more time boasting about the imaginary world’s their proposed and hyped technology is taking us, Apple does its work in silence and secret until it has something to launch that gives us that future today. After all I’m still waiting for the stunning interactive world that Microsoft promised us for its X Box Kinect artificial intelligence years ago, and remind me what happened to Google Glass after it’s marketing hype became little more than a joke and the limited practicalities became clear to all. I don’t expect Hololens to have any great effect on our lives anytime soon either, outside of at best, some very specialist applications rather like the Surface big ass table that started all this clamour for specious futures in the first place.
they have been working on this for at least 7 years…. from Job listings have seen
Your’e right, a patent was filed in 2008, but they must have been working on it before that.
Furthermore, was the top guy in VR research lured to a company barely in the starting blocks, or was he lured to a company who had been working on VR since before 2008 when the patent was applied for, where he saw much more exciting tech and opportunities.
It could be just a massive paycheque though.
I’m more inclined to bet on the second scenario.
The point is, Apple has been working on VR tech much longer than the media are reporting and are much further along than everyone thinks.
VR headsets continue to either have pushed back released dates, and/or receive less than enthusiastic reviews. IMHO we’re still, after literally decades (seriously) of waiting, in the ‘Gee Whiz’ stage where hype hides mediocrity.
Apple has some VR related patents. It will be interesting to see if Apple can do VR right while everyone else keeps attempting to perfect it.
Some VR history:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality
I first tried out immersive VR gear in ~1993. A friend was writing 3D software for it. It was very heavy and very pixelated, but something very new. At the time there were a lot of university seminars and public demos about the potential of VR. A couple decades later…
I saw Timothy Leary speak around that time frame and assumed he was going to talk about his LSD tests/adventures, but instead he blabbed about the promise of VR for several hours. He was convinced it was the next big thing. Twenty-five years later and it’s still niche.
Hopefully, the current engineers can bring something new to the table besides better resolution and reduced lag.
The MS HoloLens demos I’ve seen have sucked. (BTW: Holography has nothing to do with HoloLens. Brilliant MS, as usual). I’m told there are some Oculus Rift demos that are actually good and don’t make you ill. But I have yet to see them.