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Bloomberg: Apple's next big focus will be in augmented reality

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X

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-20/apple-s-next-big-thing

Tim Cook has talked up a lot of technologies since becoming Apple Inc.'s chief executive in 2011. Driverless cars. Artificial intelligence. Streaming television. But no technology has fired up Cook quite like augmented reality, which overlays images, video and games on the real world. Cook has likened AR's game-changing potential to that of the smartphone. At some point, he said last year, we will all "have AR experiences every day, almost like eating three meals a day. It will become that much a part of you."

Investors impatient for Apple's next breakthrough will be happy to know that Cook is very serious about AR. People with knowledge of the company's plans say Apple has embarked on an ambitious bid to bring the technology to the masses—an effort Cook and his team see as the best way for the company to dominate the next generation of gadgetry and keep people wedded to its ecosystem.

Apple has built a team combining the strengths of its hardware and software veterans with the expertise of talented outsiders, say the people, who requested anonymity to discuss internal strategy. Run by a former Dolby Laboratories executive, the group includes engineers who worked on the Oculus and HoloLens virtual reality headsets sold by Facebook and Microsoft as well as digital-effects wizards from Hollywood. Apple has also acquired several small firms with knowledge of AR hardware, 3D gaming and virtual reality software.

As previously reported by Bloomberg, Apple is working on several AR products, including digital spectacles that could connect wirelessly to an iPhone and beam content—movies, maps and more—to the wearer. While the glasses are a ways off, AR features could show up in the iPhone sooner.

Apple declined to comment.
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Building a successful AR product will be no easy task, even for a company known for slim, sturdy devices. The current crop of AR glasses are either under-powered and flimsy or powerful and overwhelmingly large. Apple, the king of thin and light, will have to leapfrog current products by launching something small and powerful.

Adding AR features to the iPhone isn't a giant leap. Building glasses will be harder. Like the Watch, they'll probably be tethered to the iPhone. While the smartphone will do the heavy lifting, beaming 3D content to the glasses will consume a lot of power, so prolonging battery life will be crucial. Content is key too. If Apple's AR glasses lack useful apps, immersive games and interesting media content, why would someone wear them? The glasses will also require a new operating system and perhaps even a new chip. Finally, Apple will have to source the guts of the gadget cheaply enough to make it affordable for the mass market.

When it was developing the Watch, Apple put together a multi-disciplinary team drawn from inside and outside the company. It has done much the same with the AR effort. In 2015, Apple recruited Mike Rockwell, who previously ran the hardware and new technologies groups at Dolby, the iconic company known for its audio and video technology. Rockwell also advised Meta, a small firm that makes $950 AR glasses and counts Dolby as an investor.

Rockwell now runs the main AR team at Apple, reporting to Dan Riccio, who's in charge of the iPhone and iPad hardware engineering groups, the people said. "He's a really sharp guy," says Jack McCauley, who co-founded and worked at Oculus before it was sold to Facebook in 2015. "He could certainly put a team together that could get an Apple AR project going."

Last spring, in a sign that it's serious about taking products to market, Apple put some of its best hardware and software people on Rockwell's team, including Fletcher Rothkopf who helped lead the team that designed the Apple Watch, and Tomlinson Holman, who created THX, the audio standard made popular by LucasFilm.

Apple has also recruited people with expertise in everything from 3D video production to wearable hardware. Among them, the people say: Cody White, former lead engineer of Amazon's Lumberyard virtual reality platform; Duncan McRoberts, Meta's former director of software development; Yury Petrov, a former Oculus researcher; and Avi Bar-Zeev, who worked on the HoloLens and Google Earth.

Apple has rounded out the team with iPhone, camera and optical lens engineers. There are people with experience in sourcing the raw materials for the glasses. The company has also mined the movie industry's 3D animation ranks, the people said, opening a Wellington office and luring several employees from Weta Digital, the New Zealand special-effects shop that worked on King Kong, Avatar and other films.
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K

Kamek

Member
Nintendo always ahead of the curve.

But seriously, this would be really cool from a gaming perspective on iOS devices[. I hope Google is following suit
 
poppabk

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
HStallion said:
I can't wait for Apple Glasses.

I have no real desire for these
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At some point someone will figure out how to make this work in a way that is acceptable to the public. I'm not convinced that apple will be the ones to do it though, they have been very uninspired with their innovations for a long time now.
 
D

Dio

Banned
Here's the thing about AR that gets me. I remember hearing about that guy who got really upset seeing someone wearing Google Glasses because of the camera - people get angry about being filmed. Won't that be a huge hurdle?
 
Bboy AJ

Bboy AJ

My dog was murdered by a 3.5mm audio port and I will not rest until the standard is dead
poppabk said:
At some point someone will figure out how to make this work in a way that is acceptable to the public. I'm not convinced that apple will be the ones to do it though, they have been very uninspired with their innovations for a long time now.
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The iPhone only came out ten years ago. Companies would kill for an iPhone product once a decade.
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Dio said:
Here's the thing about AR that gets me. I remember hearing about that guy who got really upset seeing someone wearing Google Glasses because of the camera - people get angry about being filmed. Won't that be a huge hurdle?
Click to expand...

I think that is something that will die out. The selfie culture and things related to it or in similar veins are growing more and more prominent with every passing years. It will be ubiquitous with most daily life routines and expected items and tools in the next few decades. The real issue is making one of these that is sleek in both looks and use which was the biggest issue I had with stuff like Google Glass. Its a great idea that they didn't pull off well at all and I'm not sure I expect Apple to do any better considering I haven't really been blown away by much they've done these last few years.
 
D

DavidDesu

Member
AR on your phone could be amazing IF they can get this concept to work: When you hold your phone up the screen shows you a window through your phone onto the world behind. And no I don't mean just a dumb camera feed. I mean maybe they have a wide angle lens at the back and also sensors on the front that know exactly where your eyes are how far away from the screen etc, so when you look at the screen and even when tilting the device it can feed you an image that is as if the screen wasn't there at all. Get that working then overlaying AR on top of that and that would be a pretty magical and useful experience.

Just pointing your phone at stuff and seeing stuff overlaid on the screen in which the scale is all wrong etc is a poor experience.
 
C

chrizzz09

Member
AR is the most realistic and closest approach to have a Holodeck or a HUD in "real life".

It is the inevitable first future step stone for reaching full holographic technology.
 
poppabk

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Bboy AJ said:
The iPhone only came out ten years ago. Companies would kill for an iPhone product once a decade.
Click to expand...
But apple had the iPhone, the iPad and the MacBook air in quick succession. Then nothing really of any substance, just iterations. Things like force touch failed to be the next big thing, and the watch failed to redefine the market segment like people were hoping.
 
L

Lunar15

Member
I've always seen AR as vastly more interesting, useful, and important than VR. Not to entirely shit on the concept of VR, it's just that I see way more practical uses for AR.
 
Chittagong

Chittagong

Gold Member
I just don't believe that Apple has an innovation engine anymore. They do solid incremental and follower products, but their 'major initiatives' since iPad have all been pretty 'eh' (TV 4, Watch, Music) or failed altogether (Car). They are now a big corporate, and can throw money and people on areas they think are cool, but they haven't got the culture for institutionalised big scale innovation.
 
J

jstripes

Banned
Lunar15 said:
I've always seen AR as vastly more interesting, useful, and important than VR. Not to entirely shit on the concept of VR, it's just that I see way more practical uses for AR.
Click to expand...

I do to. One of the the problems with VR is that it's an inherently anti-social technology, you're literally cutting yourself off from the world, and humans are social creatures.

I love VR, but it's only really good for escapes.
 
D

D4Danger

Unconfirmed Member
Saucycarpdog said:
That reminds me. Whatever happened to that AR company Google invested in? Magic Leap I believe it was called.
Click to expand...

Looking more and more like a scam/vaporware. Those promo videos were CG it turns out and the tech is apparently way behind even stuff like Microsoft's hololens which has been out for a while now.
 
J

Just_myles

Member
Been hearing about this for a while now. It's apple so they're going to be silent about this. All we can do is speculate and hope they in fact do have something to show us.
 
M

Mindlog

Member
jstripes said:
I do to. One of the the problems with VR is that it's an inherently anti-social technology, you're literally cutting yourself off from the world, and humans are social creatures.

I love VR, but it's only really good for escapes.
Click to expand...
And yet it was an AR product (Google Glass) that was labeled far more anti-social and met with a virulent response unlike anything released as a VR device.

The distinction between AR/VR is a very temporary condition.
 
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