Every day brings its share of sometimes contradictory rumors about Apple’s mixed reality headset. the informationwhich is already working this week, is adding a layer of it with an extension new article Which gives some additional details about product development.
A design that will always share Jony Ive. The former chief designer left Apple end of 2019but continues to cooperate from time to time with the manufacturer, On a 24-inch iMac For example, or in Apple watch faces Through his LoveFrom studio. Helmets team members have been regularly traveling to San Francisco, where Ive has a home, to validate certain design choices.
The designer also suggested that the device’s battery be external, and that the helmet be connected to it in a Magic Leap way:
However, nothing says that Apple kept this idea for the final design of the product. Since the AR headphone project dates back to 2015, Ive certainly had a hand in developing it. Thus, he would have rejected a proposal for a transcendent helmet as the computing power was meticulously relayed into an outer box. In his opinion, a headset should be something easy to wear (but in that context, why bother with an external battery?).
Jony Ive reportedly refused a VR headset that was overpowered
Unfortunately for Mike Rockwell, who is overseeing the project at Apple, this external box was necessary to create realistic graphics. Without Unity’s contribution, the promise of an “excellent” mixed reality experience would not be fulfilled. Ive’s decision, dating back to 2019, has radically changed the nature of the product, which was supposed to be aimed more at creators and professionals.
Other details provided by the site: According to the sources who worked on the project, the video game aspect will not be a priority for the manufacturer. Apple had not developed specific controllers, preferring to focus on interpreting hand and head movements to interact with virtual objects.
This does not mean that there will be no games for the Apple AR headset. But while the competition, Meta up front, puts the bundle on video games to promote its hardware, so it wouldn’t be a significant selling point for an Apple device. miscalculation? After all, the iPhone owes much of its great success to video games, which are also an effective way to give that “wow” side to augmented and virtual reality.
From a technical point of view, the helmet will integrate no less than 14 cameras, which is close to an earlier rumor made by Ming-Chi Kuo who developed as many as 15 video sensors. A real headache for hardware and software engineers! But these cameras will be necessary to reproduce the user’s face as faithfully as possible.
Apple would have really made it a point of pride to develop highly realistic avatars that better display the expressions and movements of the user’s mouth.
Composite image of Apple’s virtual and augmented reality headset
Yesterday, Mark Gorman wrote that members of the Apple board of directors had obtained a demo of the device, which means that its development is almost complete.
