Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Apple and Facebook Are Serious About VR Glasses But So What

When Apple transmogrified into the biggest toy manufacturer in the world, the company's interest in VR glasses shouldn't be a huge surprise and, what do you know, they want to pair the glasses with an iPhone to make a ridiculously-expensive toy cost even more.  (MacWorld:  Apple and Facebook are serious about augmented reality glasses, according to new report)

Ed:  those devices are fun when you're wasted!

Too bad the people who use them are not.  They've become unimaginative louts with no more aspiration than the average prairie dog.



Credit:  USPTO


Watson:  welcome to the future, man.  You will be able to take these to the Olympics and play World of Tanks as a medal event.


It seems Apple no longer ties the VR glasses to the iPhone.

According to the Financial Times (note: this article is behind a paywall), Apple and Facebook have stepped up their efforts to develop augmented reality glasses. Previously, Apple’s AR efforts were linked to the iPhone, and Facebook seemed occupied with the virtual reality capabilities of Oculus. Now, both tech giants are eager to create an AR wearable, according to the report.

- MacWorld

Ed:  so Oculus and the iPhone have failed?

Apparently so when they don't seem to have much use for them for VR.

Ed:  they really don't have any idea where they're going with VR, do they?

Nope

You can't even play Pokemon Go with it because you can't see anything except the VR image.

2 comments:

Kannafoot said...

No, VR hasn't failed, and neither have the iPhone nor Oculus solutions. The shift across the industry, however, is trending towards AR, not VR, since the application potential is far greater in the former. (Note that you *could* play Pokemon Go with AR since you see the "real world" through the goggles.)

The biggest impediment to anything VR or AR right now is price. Most of the setups that aren't tightly coupled with a phone require additional sensors that are just as costly as the headset. As a result, about the only headset that is widespread is the Samsung version, and that's only because they offered one free with a pre-order of the Galaxy S7.

The other major issue with VR, unfortunately, is extreme vertigo and nausea. AR will address that issue since your experience is not completely isolated.

By decoupling their solutions from a specific hardware platform, Apple is effectively expanding their potential user base to include any platform powerful enough to run the software. They are also reportedly working on a wearable version similar to the "Google Glass" concept that provides comfortable (and stylish, I'm told) eyewear without tight tethering to a device.

This evolution of the technology is a necessary step before widespread adoption becomes possible.

Unknown said...

Ah, this AR may have some potential. I've been dismissing VR from the start since it won't let me see my guitar so it's useless for me or likely any other musician for live performance.

I still don't see much of a future for them except the obvious in gaming or porno although there's some science about using it for complex surgery, etc but that looked extremely far-fetched. I suspect the evolution will be away from complex surgery in time and we can get an editorial from McCoy on that.

I strongly believe watching a movie is a communal experience since we like to say, wow, did you see that and of course whomever saw it when sitting right next to you but that sharing is part of the experience and VR will kill it.

This AR is not at all the same and I could see some possible use with that but VR, in my view, has no more future than Duke Leto.