When Apple unveiled its AR/VR Vision Pro headset early last year the product was met with just an absolute ocean of tech press hype. You couldnāt spend thirty seconds online without reading aā¦
I went and did the Apple demo. I was there for something else at the time, and they had an opening, so I jumped on it. I highly recommend doing the demo, itās honestly really freaking impressive. Iām not positive what the killer app is for it yet, or if this is just a step in long term AR/MR, but what theyāve done is really impressive. Yes, itās expensive as hell, and my suspicion is that long term the displays will be replaced with a waveguide (Stanfordās looks pretty good at this point), so it wonāt need the external-facing display, but theyāve got the head and hand-tracking in a good spot, as well as the gestures needed for it.
Maybe, the killer app will be the overlay itself, where it uses a camera/location/audio to see whatās going on and present more context. Looking at a menu? Okay, Iāve had this and this and liked it, but their X Iām not a fan of. I need Y from the grocery store, where is it on the shelvesā¦ more than anything, I think that they saw what Google glass could become capable of, and thought that the phone as it is now (screen, etc) was going to become obsolete at some point, and they were terrified of losing that race.
For the specs of what it is and what else is out there, itās actually a really good price.
People like to compare it to the cheapest headsets out there, but it has specs that beat the highest end headsets out there and itās cheaper than those.
When the Apple Vision pro came out, the closest device sporting similar specs would be the Varjo XR-3 which was only available to Enterprise users.
It cost $7k plus a $1500 yearly subscription, plus you needed a powerful computer to run it.
Itās got good hardware, but thereās nothing being done with that hardware. The pricepoint kept there from being any broad dev support, so its basically a gimmicky paperweight that costs $3500. At least Microsoft will directly work with industry partners for Hololens development, but thereās nothing like that with Apple to help pave over the notoriously rough super-early adoption era.
Yeah, Iāve seen where doctors are using it for surgery and I see all sorts of parallels to the portable computing movement of the 90s, which were about having tablets instead of a ton of manuals, and some of the AR/MR where it shows them where everything goes while looking at the part in question.
Iāve seen where doctors are using it for surgery
The article Iāve seen is one instance in Brazil (article in Brazilian Portuguese) for laparoscopic surgery, which makes a lot of sense. I donāt know how it compare to other displays, however, or if using a VR set rather than a monitor offers advantages, or if the Vision Pro did anything new or better. The same article mentions that doctors had done the same thing with a HoloLens VR headset some years before.
Iām sure it is extremely impressive. That means nothing when youāre paying $3500 for a device that has no practical use. It doesnāt even support any VR games, which is the only realistic usecase. Maybe they could rent them out for a few weeks because after that time you get bored of it immediately.
I think itās pretty clear their intended use was āspatial computingā which is apple marketing speak for a computer with floating displays. But they were fools to think that anyone wanted to walk around with this thing strapped to their face, much less that they would pay such a wild amount of money for it. Or that they would use that floating keyboard on a daily basis.
Apple needs new products - even something like this gives headlines, reminds people about the cool product, so maybe they choose a different one. Even if it doesnāt make money it keeps Apple as ānew and innovativeā and helps recruitment.
Gets it out there for developers to try out, come up with use cases and killer apps.
People (prosumers) come up with uses that Apple and Devs may not have thought of.
Allows people from #4 to bring them to work - after all, thatās how Apple got big in the first placeā¦ People bringing their Apple ][ & visicalc, since their IT wasnāt responsive enough or people hated working on mainframes. It wouldnāt surprise me if one of the doctors brought it in himself thinking it might be useful.
Allows Apple to come up with justification for the R&D money for the GUI, UX, hand gestures, etc that theyāre going to need later. Gotta keep shareholders happy.
The AR market is not just entertainment, Microsoft has been failing to build a viable AR helmet for soldiers for years now, after the latest-and-greatest fight jets got them.
Professional use too - think of how much simpler and safer ārealisticā training could be for deep sea commercial divers or oil rig workers. Live schematic overlays for aircraft technicians at work/in training.
Those are a few of the applications where an absurdly high unit cost/license fee would be gladly swallowed instead by governments or business.
Yes, itās expensive as hell, and my suspicion is that long term the displays will be replaced with a waveguide (Stanfordās looks pretty good at this point), so it wonāt need the external-facing display
Interesting; any more information on this? I tried a search but didnāt turn much up.
I think that they saw what Google glass could become capable of, and thought that the phone as it is now (screen, etc) was going to become obsolete at some point, and they were terrified of losing that race.
Thatās very fairā¦ I definitely think the only viable future here is lightweight AR glasses.
I went and did the Apple demo. I was there for something else at the time, and they had an opening, so I jumped on it. I highly recommend doing the demo, itās honestly really freaking impressive. Iām not positive what the killer app is for it yet, or if this is just a step in long term AR/MR, but what theyāve done is really impressive. Yes, itās expensive as hell, and my suspicion is that long term the displays will be replaced with a waveguide (Stanfordās looks pretty good at this point), so it wonāt need the external-facing display, but theyāve got the head and hand-tracking in a good spot, as well as the gestures needed for it.
Maybe, the killer app will be the overlay itself, where it uses a camera/location/audio to see whatās going on and present more context. Looking at a menu? Okay, Iāve had this and this and liked it, but their X Iām not a fan of. I need Y from the grocery store, where is it on the shelvesā¦ more than anything, I think that they saw what Google glass could become capable of, and thought that the phone as it is now (screen, etc) was going to become obsolete at some point, and they were terrified of losing that race.
For the specs of what it is and what else is out there, itās actually a really good price.
People like to compare it to the cheapest headsets out there, but it has specs that beat the highest end headsets out there and itās cheaper than those.
When the Apple Vision pro came out, the closest device sporting similar specs would be the Varjo XR-3 which was only available to Enterprise users. It cost $7k plus a $1500 yearly subscription, plus you needed a powerful computer to run it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REo1ugX5GSI
Basically, hardware wise, itās good, but for itās actual uses itās not worth the $3500.
Itās got good hardware, but thereās nothing being done with that hardware. The pricepoint kept there from being any broad dev support, so its basically a gimmicky paperweight that costs $3500. At least Microsoft will directly work with industry partners for Hololens development, but thereās nothing like that with Apple to help pave over the notoriously rough super-early adoption era.
Yeah, Iāve seen where doctors are using it for surgery and I see all sorts of parallels to the portable computing movement of the 90s, which were about having tablets instead of a ton of manuals, and some of the AR/MR where it shows them where everything goes while looking at the part in question.
The article Iāve seen is one instance in Brazil (article in Brazilian Portuguese) for laparoscopic surgery, which makes a lot of sense. I donāt know how it compare to other displays, however, or if using a VR set rather than a monitor offers advantages, or if the Vision Pro did anything new or better. The same article mentions that doctors had done the same thing with a HoloLens VR headset some years before.
Several others, though a couple seem to be about a POC.
Iām sure it is extremely impressive. That means nothing when youāre paying $3500 for a device that has no practical use. It doesnāt even support any VR games, which is the only realistic usecase. Maybe they could rent them out for a few weeks because after that time you get bored of it immediately.
I think itās pretty clear their intended use was āspatial computingā which is apple marketing speak for a computer with floating displays. But they were fools to think that anyone wanted to walk around with this thing strapped to their face, much less that they would pay such a wild amount of money for it. Or that they would use that floating keyboard on a daily basis.
What is the point in developing something so expensive that nobody buys it?
Like sure itās got some really cool tech in it but since literally no one has made any apps for it whatās the point.
Some reasons.
The AR market is not just entertainment, Microsoft has been failing to build a viable AR helmet for soldiers for years now, after the latest-and-greatest fight jets got them.
Professional use too - think of how much simpler and safer ārealisticā training could be for deep sea commercial divers or oil rig workers. Live schematic overlays for aircraft technicians at work/in training.
Those are a few of the applications where an absurdly high unit cost/license fee would be gladly swallowed instead by governments or business.
Whatās a waveguide?
Hereās a good article about this specific waveguide: https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/9/24153092/stanford-ai-holographic-ar-glasses-3d-imaging-research
TLDR - they need special materials to allow small/thin glasses for XR goggles. This looks like it could be huge.
It appears to be related to fiber optics, hereās the best resource I found:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aZum_COPUek
Interesting; any more information on this? I tried a search but didnāt turn much up.
Thatās very fairā¦ I definitely think the only viable future here is lightweight AR glasses.