- Apple presented virtual reality glasses for the first time.
- The iPhone group has introduced the device called “Vision Pro”, which is reminiscent of ski goggles.
- The headset can show digital objects in the real environment on its displays.
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The futuristic “ski goggles” Apple “Vision Pro” is sold for $ 3499. Apple CEO Tim Cook presented the new virtual reality glasses at the developer conference.
Reuters / Apple
Apple fans have been waiting for the proverbial “One More Thing” for almost a decade. “A new era is beginning,” Apple announced before the announcement on Twitter that it would be launching “Mixed Reality” glasses.
Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled the new headset at the annual developer conference WWDC in Cupertino, California, with the words: After “personal computing” with the PC and “mobile computing” with mobile devices, this is the beginning of “spatial computing”, of spatial data processing. The areas of application should include work, video conferencing, media consumption and games.
On the one hand, the so-called headset in the form of ski goggles should allow virtual overlays into the real world (augmented reality, AR). At the same time, you should also be able to immerse yourself completely in virtual worlds (Virtual Reality, VR). The mixture of AR and VR is called “Mixed Reality” (XR).
Hope for innovation breakthrough
Technically, apps are projected from the user’s point of view into the surrounding space with the data glasses, so that a website can be seen above the work table. Control should be exclusively via eye movements, hands and voice, without additional hardware such as a mouse. The wearer’s eyes remain visible to outsiders through a display on the front.
With the new glasses, you should be able to switch between AR and VR with a rotary knob. As with devices from the competition, the environment is captured by cameras on the housing and reproduced on a display in front of the eyes. Products from the competition also work according to this technical principle.
The Vision Pro is scheduled to be available in the USA from early 2024 and then in other countries on an ongoing basis. The recommended price was $3499.
Apple is entering the market at a moment when a short-lived hype surrounding the business with virtual worlds and objects has noticeably died down.
The new data glasses should be part of the major product innovations that have made Apple from a small computer pioneer in the 1970s to one of the most valuable corporations in the world: Macintosh Computer (1984), iMac (1999), iPod (2001), iPhone (2007), iPad (2010) and most recently the Apple Watch (2014).