The Vision Pro mixed reality headset has been presented by tech giant Apple. This is the company’s first significant product launch since the 2014 release of the Apple Watch. Tech giant Apple introduced the much-awaited Visio Pro mixed reality headset on Monday. The device is meant for developers and content producers rather than everyday users. It will sell for $3499 when it debuts in early 2024.
Despite how futuristic it may seem, the headgear may mark the start of a new era for Apple and the whole industry. What does Apple’s Vision Pro—the first spatial computer in the world—do? We only explained the technology underlying the Vision Pro headset.
What is the Vision Pro from Apple?
Simply explained, Apple’s Vision Pro overlays technology onto your real-world surroundings to bring the digital into the physical world. The Apple experience you must be familiar with from using iPhones or Mac computers is transported out into the real world once you put on the headset, which resembles a pair of ski goggles.
But it’s not quite that easy. The Vision Pro is similar to many other Apple products in that it has a number of intricate technology supporting what seems to be a straightforward user interface.
“Invention in almost every aspect of the system was necessary to create our first spatial computer. According to a news release from Apple, Mike Rockwell, vice president of the Technology Development Group, “we created an independent spatial computer in a tiny wearable form factor that is the most sophisticated personal electronics device ever.
How does the headset function?
It would be wise to understand what the headset does before we look at how it operates. The mixed reality headgear renders Apple’s new visionOS operating system in three dimensions using an integrated display and lens system. Users of Vision Pro may communicate with the OS with their hands, voice, and eyes. According to Apple, this should allow consumers to engage with digital information as if it were genuinely there in the real world.
Vision Pro by Apple Apple created a rendering to show how using the Vision Pro should feel. (Apple image credit)
The Vision Pro does not employ transparent glass, unlike the now-defunct Google Lens, despite what may appear in promotional movies where the wearers’ eyes are visible. Due to an external display that streams a live feed of your eyes, the eyes may be seen from outside.
According to TechCrunch, the Vision Pro will make use of a total of 23 sensors, including 12 cameras, 5 sensors, and 6 microphones. It will make the user feel as though they are viewing the real world, while in fact they are simply receiving a “live feed” of their surroundings with an overlay on top, using these sensors combined with its new R1 processor, two internal screens (one for each eye), and a complicated lens system.
According to Apple, the R1 microprocessor was created to “eliminate lag” and motion sickness. For the remainder of the computing tasks that really power the apps you use with the smartphone, the gadget also has the more traditional M2 processor.
To imitate how the image of your surroundings will alter depending on your motions, infrared cameras built into the headset will monitor your eyes and adjust the internal display accordingly.
The headgear also has outside cameras that fire downward. These will monitor your hands so that you may use gestures to interact with visionOS. Additionally, LIDAR sensors on the exterior of the Vision Pro will track the locations of nearby objects in real-time.
What is the Vision Pro’s underlying science?
Though we perceive and live in a three-dimensional world, our eyes can only perceive things in two dimensions. Our brains have just learned to perceive depth in the way that they do. To add what humans experience as depth, it uses two slightly different pictures from each eye and does its own processing.
It is likely that the two screens in the Vision Pro will capitalize on this processing by showing two slightly different pictures, deceiving our brain into believing it is viewing a three-dimensional image. Once the brain has been misled, the person has been tricked as well, and presto! The user is now experiencing 3D.
