Apple’s VR and AR Fusion, Soon to Be a Reality

The sudden shift of the world’s attention towards VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented reality) has made this race, more exciting. Latest VR headsets from HTC, Samsung, Asus and many others have tried to grab consumers attention and attention of every tech lover of the world. Although there is nothing that a tech lover wants more in his life than to be completely immersed in a world that can be designed by them, the VR technology today, hasn’t really been engaging to say the least. It has had its fanboy moments with Facebook’s Oculus, Google and Samsung entering the market, but no major player has been able to bring in the VR and AR revolution. The only big player still sitting on the sidelines, however, has been noticing the flaws and is now ready to revolutionize the VR world and is ready to answer the most obvious question out there: When will Apple release VR headset?

With a codename like a terminator, T288, Apple’s first VR + AR device is under development and will hit the market in the year 2020. This device not only promises to be extremely responsive, but with two, 8K displays for each eye, it creates an extremely immersive experience for the user and Apple looks to put most of the VR and AR devices to shame according to CNET. It should be noted that none of our advanced TVs today promise an 8K technology.

Although VR headset for Macbook was recently introduced with SteamVR bringing gaming back to Macbook PC’s, Apple seems to be shifting its opinion in the favor of VR and AR. This can be seen from the example given below.

Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO has shown a lot of appreciation for the augmented reality or AR, recently. From what he sees and understands, the AR can be the game changer of the level that was iPhone in its time and with a plan to change VR for good; Apple is looking to do it in a unique style. The highlights of this simple being bringing a VR/AR device made efficient by:

• Shedding down the extra load:
  First things first, today’s VR sets are heavy, bulky and bothersome due to an important need of being either wired with a high-end PC or powered by a phone. Due to this, the overall time it takes to fire off a VR headset is too long making it as unpopular as it is today. Apple in a masterstroke looks to push this issue down with a wireless device. Looking into the future which promises a wireless VR device, Apple looks to realize this dream sooner than expected. As reported by someone familiar with the Apple’s plans, this box would be powered by a wireless technology working on a 60 GHz speed called WiGig along with a generation 2 version known as 802.11ay. This would, in theory, negate the need of a phone or a wired connection to a PC or a central HUB to connect the device to. The compact shape is also ensured with a 5-nanometer processor. While it is impossible to imagine a shape as small as that, comparably, an iPhone X processor holds a 10-nanometer processor. Thus it is obvious to say; the smaller it is the faster it would run. Notably, the WiGig technology isn’t expected to arrive anytime before 2019.

• AR/VR fusion:
  Over the next few years, it is expected that the markets for VR and AR will be increased tenfold. AR has been extensively popular unlike VR and while companies like Magic Leap has been investing millions to bring it to the wide audience waiting for its release, Facebook too looks to invest in the VR and AR fused headsets and claims them to be the next big communication and computing revolution. With the recently released ARKit instead of bringing VR, iPhone 8 and subsequent phones and devices enjoyed the AR technology introduction and although allowing the SteamVR for MacBook, Apple still hasn’t introduced any hardware for either AR or VR technology. It still, however, has been working under the covers, obtaining start-ups, filing patents and hiring AR and VR technology experts. According to CNET, one of such patents looks to minimize and eliminate motion sickness while at the same time also curing boredom for passengers travelling in a vehicle. Bloomberg reported that by the end of 2019, Apple will have the AR technology perfected and ready to be implemented into its new device. It also said that this device would be powered by an OS, display and a new chip that would be designed by Apple itself.
   
• Taking control of technology of the components:
  Apple has been trying its best to move towards a time when it doesn’t need to borrow technology from anyone. The recent move to build these hardware and software components aims to shift towards a build quality that will be controlled by Apple itself which could allow Apple to tweak both the security and the device lifetime. This shift in the technology can be seen in the Bluetooth chip that Apple designs which instantly connects Airpods to the new iPhones.  
  While the Intel chips are looking to be replaced by the chips designed by Apple by 2020, it is expected that these same chips might be used to power this latest VR headset or a VR/AR device as per someone familiar with Apple’s plans.
  At the same time, it is interesting to note that this would be powered by not one, but two 8K displays. To put that into perspective LG and Samsung released their versions of 8K TVs in the CES event this year and are still not available in the market. A Chinese company aims to build 8K VR devices soon but with 4K displays on each side. Apple plans to have 8K installed on one single eye bringing the total ability of the device to be called 16K!

As per Jony Ive, the brilliant design chief in Apple, said in a conference in October last year that “there are certain ideas that we have, and we are waiting for the technology to catch up with the idea,” while pointing out the display and semiconductor technologies.

Although VR Facetime is still nowhere to be seen even though Hangout VR has been introduced by Facebook, one thing’s for certain; no matter what the company now has plans for; the future doesn’t seem so far away now.

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