At WWDC on June 5, 2023, the augmented reality viewer of Apple, known as Apple Vision Pro. This is a headset/PC. According to Apple, Vision Pro is the next step forward for the technology. Just as the Mac ushered in personal computers and the iPhone ushered in a computing-powered mobile device, Apple Vision Pro ushers in the spatial use of computers. It will cost $3,499. It will be available at early 2024 in the USA and later in the rest of the world.
Vision Pro allows you to use your eyes, voice and hands to interact with a series of applications that can be placed around us, resizing them as we want and interacting with other people as if we were in the same environment. It allows you to launch video applications and make voice searches, also using Siri.
It is also possible to create virtual environments around us that cover the room in which we find ourselves. We can define the space occupied by the virtual environments with a wheel positioned on the Vision Pro. It is also possible to interact with 3D elements and rotate them to observe them in all directions, a useful function for those who work in 3D graphics.
Vision Pro also supports the EyeSight technology that shows your eyes to those around you and shows you who is approaching, so you blend the real world and what you’re looking through the headset.
Also, the headset supports the connection with Mac, iPhone and iPad to view what is being done with those devices. For input, you can use Magic Trackpad and Magic Keyboard.
It also allows for capture videos and photos, viewing them through the viewer around you. Panorama images can also be viewed in their entirety. Videos can also be recorded and played back in 3D.
Apple Vision Pro is also designed for viewing videos in cinematic mode, defining the size of the screen and limiting the ambient light to enjoy the film to the fullest. You can also set background environments to hide the room. It is also possible to watch 3D movies.
It is also possible to use i Apple Arcade games (over 100 games since the release of Vision Pro) with controller support (DualSense was shown in the presentation).
The CEO of Disney then arrived on the Apple stage and explained that he presented support for Disney Plus since Apple’s D1 Vision Pro with what appear to be additional augmented reality features for viewing series and sports shows.
The viewer has a modular structure and allows you to mount prescription lenses for eyeglass wearers. It also has a cable-connected battery that lasts two hours, so you don’t put the weight directly on your head. The screen consists of 23 million pixels (in two panels): the resolution is 4K with HDR. In terms of audio, it supports spatial audio with dual drivers. It uses an M2 chip and the new R1 chip that processes inputs from cameras, sensors and microphones. Its purpose is to eliminate lag with 12ms latency.
Vision Pro uses a new operating system known simply as visualOS, built on top of Apple’s other OSes. It supports Foveated Render, which is technology that prioritizes where you’re looking at and limits the details of what’s in your peripheral vision to limit the workload of the chips.
OpticID is a new login method supported by Vision Pro based on the retina, for maximum security. Also, in terms of security and privacy, what you see with your eyes using the headset will not be recorded. Only in the event of a click, as well as when using a computer, websites and apps detect an interaction.
