Why Apple’s Vision Pro Set will be a game changer
Apple’s announcement on their Vision Pro Headset revealed the intricacies of a release that’s been anticipated by enthusiasts for over a year. Prototypes for the device were reportedly aimed to launch in the Spring of 2022, but supply chain problems associated with Covid may have pushed progress back. Reports convey that Apple is simultaneously working on several devices, all with differing degrees of augmented reality.
As magicians of hardware, the implications of such a headset look different than the release of FB, or Meta’s VR headset. Firstly, the wearability and classic sleekness of Apple’s design have a lightness of around 1/3 of a pound — which is about 1/3 of the weight of Meta’s Quest Pro headset. Developments in AR technology appear as the greater emphasis of the future as opposed to VR. Streamline, lightweight products like Apple’s Vision Pro allows for integration into real life versus a complete immersion into a simulation.
The distinction of mixed reality where objects in the real world come into play versus full virtual reality is key: use cases for the former lie along a continuum that does not require complete sequestering of an individual from their surrounding environment.
News publications on this Apple headliner have classified the upcoming device as an XR, MR, AR, and/or VR device so to the novice viewer, the terminology may appear conflicting. . . So what do these terms really mean?
XR: Extended Reality
- An interface where real world and digital environment interact; also known as immersive reality.
- Could be accessed through a laptop, smartphone, or headset.
MR: Mixed Reality
- Interaction of virtual and real-life objects that effect change in the real world.
- Requires a wearable device like a headset.
AR: Augmented Reality
- Real-time information processing that overlays digital content on top of the real world through a mobile device or headset.
- Augmented portrayals can be delivered through a mobile device or headset.
- iPhones can already integrate AR technology via certain apps which register cues in the surrounding environment to prompt a corresponding display.
VR: Virtual Reality
- Distraction-free, fully immersive environment that requires highly rendered graphics/displays.
- Hardware like a headset or full-body immersive technology is required.
Virtual Reality tech has been focused largely on gaming and entertainment, while Apple’s upcoming XR headset appears it will allow for functional applications in the workplace along with health and fitness regimens (with the obvious entertainment features too).
The seamless switch between VR and AR will allow users to striate their experience between external filtrations and virtual projections.
Developments of rival devices have promises of similar daily applications, however, Apple’s contribution will be a game-changer in terms of global usage. Meta’s headset has earned VR an association with impracticality and discomfort via its bulky design and imprecise optics strategies. Alternatively, Apple’s status as the #2 most wealthy corporation in the world will reorient associations and spark broad adoption.
AR (XR, MR, and everything in between) applications
At the risk of sounding like a cyborg Chad, let me first come out and say I love culinary arts and find great joy in the creative, relaxing nature of baking and cooking freestyle.
That said, on my busier days, a gentle reminder that I haven’t consumed enough protein or should consider adding more kimchi to my microbial load would be greatly appreciated.
An intelligent device digesting my sensory data could easily spit suggestions of recipes or lifestyle hacks I could impose at the optimum moment in my work day.
(Ex. A Siri-like message to go on a 10 minute walk after I’ve been typing for 1.5 hrs . . . like now).
Along with diet and exercise, XR headsets like the anticipated Apple model could enhance the travel route you take while taking real-time data of your geographic position and perceptions and suggesting a new adventure or food spot based on your previous patterns. (I’ll reserve my biases for spontaneity and serendipity.)
AR present and future
AR exists on a continuum, thus, buffering the screeches and hollers of the urban jungle with noise-canceling headphones or blunting bored stretches of pavement with sensory distractions on our phones are ways in which we already augment our reality.
I love the sensation of being in the bubble of my Sony’s while techno mutes off-putting comments and noises as I cruise through my neighborhood in the Mission of San Francisco.
Looking forward, broader perceptive augmentations could sufficiently mute all offensive-sighted things, while optimizing for your personal preferences and goals.
While this is fantastic news on the front of ignoring crude gestures or harassing comments as a female (I’ll just speak for myself here), this also comes at the cost of cognizance to the world in which we live in.
Media like film, TV, and advertisements have the ability to subsume consciousness into another dimension. While there are countless potential artistic, educational and empathetic benefits, recent technological trends have hijacked human visual-auditory proclivities to farm engagement and lock the eyes of billions for as long as possible.
Interfaces like TikTok are prime harbingers to the algorithmic information streams that may become even more intimate in the face of VR/AR technology.
Eye tracking capabilities will not only assist users in decreasing mechanical strokes involved in the device’s operation, but will additionally help developers and researchers for private companies in optimizing user engagement.
We have yet to see what privacy clauses will be instigated for prescient developments, thus it is important for users to consider the cascading power of a handful of institutions. When an individual engages with technology that decreases the friction of personal information curation (including sensory information), the trade-off is the implantation of algorithms built to parse the masses.
Jared Lanier, the so-called “Father of VR,” has introduced significant concerns when relating to VR/AR technologies. Despite being a driver for the development of the technology, Lanier expresses remorse regarding the ways in which these technologies have influenced the attenuation of democracy. (I plan to write more about Lanier and his concepts on technology and social media in later articles — for now, I’ll stick to the straight and narrow(ish).)
“If we allow our self-congratulatory adoration of technology to distract us from our own contact with each other, then somehow, the original agenda has been lost.” -Jared Lanier
With consideration for the rapid pace of technology, potential consumers may benefit from considering the trickle-down of technology into personal data and decision making prior to adoption.
Apple’s augmenting headset may be as revolutionary to the human-technological interace as the iPhone. Like with any technological innovation, there are risks to be had with personal privacy, autonomy, and safety. All the while, the countless world-changing applications of AR/VR technology, especially concerning medical and psychological intervention should not be upended as a consequence of Singularity-fearing resistance.
We already live in a sort of XR . . . just one that influences a terrible posture.
By having tech that is more immersive in the real world, there’s a possibility of greater integration with one’s environment rather than the hyphenation that occurs between our shiny black screens and the floor. Furthermore, the advent of AR and VR offers exciting new bounds to UI and design opportunities that I’m looking forward to jump into. Balanced with my excitement is a healthy dose of skepticism surrounding daily usage of a powerful device like this.
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Read more from this Author:
How I decided to leave Silicon Valley
Creator’s Rights and the Struggle Against Meta Monopolization
