“Apple Inc., seeking a breakthrough product to succeed the iPhone, aims to have technology ready for an augmented-reality headset in 2019 and could ship a product as early as 2020,” Mark Gurman reports for Bloomberg. “Unlike the current generation of virtual reality headsets that use a smartphone as the engine and screen, Apple’s device will have its own display and run on a new chip and operating system, according to people familiar with the situation.”
“Apple began putting together a team to work on AR-related projects a couple of years ago, Bloomberg reported in March,” Gurman reports. “Led by Mike Rockwell, who previously ran engineering at Dolby Labs, the group has now grown to several hundred engineers from across Apple, the people said. Scattered across office parks in both Cupertino and Sunnyvale, California, the team is working on several hardware and software projects under the umbrella code name of ‘T288.'”
“The team’s first product was ARKit, tools that outside software developers use to create AR applications for the latest iPhones and iPads, leveraging their screens, cameras and processors to create virtual 3-D interfaces for online shopping, education and gaming. This was an interim step, giving Apple an opportunity to test the technology on an existing product,” Gurman reports. “The new operating system, internally dubbed ‘rOS’ for ‘reality operating system,’ is based on iOS, the iPhone’s operating system. Just as tvOS powers the Apple TV, macOS runs on Macs and watchOS runs on Apple Watches, ‘rOS’ will power Apple’s AR headset. Geoff Stahl, formerly a software manager for games and graphics at Apple, is one of the directors of the ‘rOS’ software group.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Forget the “headset” moniker. This will be smart glasses done right.
Stylish eyewear that actually delivers useful data to wearers is potentially a huge market and Apple is exactly the company to deliver just such a wearable. — MacDailyNews, January 25, 2017
Augmented Reality is going to change everything. — MacDailyNews, July 21, 2017
Someday, hopefully sooner than later, we’ll look back at holding up slabs of metal and glass to access AR as unbelievably quaint. — MacDailyNews, July 28, 2017
The impact of augmented reality cannot be overstated. It will be a paradigm shift larger than the iPhone and the half-assed clones it begat. — MacDailyNews, August 4, 2017
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Apple patent application reveals personal display headset invention – May 8, 2014
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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
Powerful new patent application details next step in Apple ‘iGlasses’ project – December 7, 2012
iGlasses: Apple granted patent for head-mounted augmented reality displays – July 5, 2012
I’m loving the sound of this. As MDN said, forget images of Glassholes as Apple will deliver the right product at the right time – as usual.
Yup, except Samsung will rush something out 6 months to a year earlier that is half baked so they can claim “FIRST!”
I have my doubts. Sounds like another tech fad where only hardcore geeks with ready cash need apply.
Bear in mind apples history with:
1 Games, TV, pro apps.
2 Getting to a market first.
I’m not 100% convinced on AR glasses.
Reality already has the advantage without augmentation.
I need to augment me.
Anyone else find the 2020 date a useful marketing possibility? You know 20 / 20 vision?
When Apple launches it’s Apple Specs with augmented reality it will have an unsurmountable lead on the competition as AR kit on the iPhone is Apple’s trojan horse into this lucrative market. It won’t matter what hardware copies Samsung and other Android nanufacturers come out with because Apple will once again control the AR software eco system. Apple Specs will only be as good as the AR software that developers create for them, by the time Apple launches this product there will be thousands of amazing AR apps ready to go, the fragmentied competition will have none and their inevitable half assed copies will simply fail.
Perhaps Dr Hawking has it all wrong. We will all end up as sensory peripherals to the interconnected supercomputers of the net. We will become the borg and resistance will be futile.
Professor Hawking
Not sure, but could the 3D face recognition camera not also be used as a 3D scanner – scan an object and print it out on a 3D printer. No need to know 3D software….