Apple Lays Out More Pieces of Its Future AR Headset Puzzle
Anyone following Apple's WWDC developer conference last week for news on its long-expected AR/VR headset was bound to be disappointed. The event had news about Macs, iPads, iPhones, Apple Watch, the smart home and even cars, but AR was barely mentioned.
After reports of delays, Apple may not end up releasing this headset until 2023. That could mean another year of waiting… or it could mean an event later this year previewing what's to come. Right now we're left with a lot of unknowns, but that doesn't mean there weren't clues and new software that seem like they'll be very useful for a headset to come.
Apple already has a well-developed set of AR tools for iPhones and iPads, and depth-sensing lidar scanners that can do the sorts of real world "meshing" that VR and AR headsets need to overlay virtual objects convincingly. There is a set of tools that recognizes text and objects from camera feeds, much like Google Lens. The Apple Watch even has some accessibility-focused gesture recognition.
What WWDC 2022 showed off were a handful of refinements that, the more I think about them, seem aimed at laying down additional groundwork before a headset arrives.
2022-06-14 00:46:08
