A New Era of Human-Computer Interaction?
“Apple is making the mass consumer market familiar with the value proposition of extended reality.” A comment on Apple’s latest release by The Singularity Group’s Director of Research Shiko Ben-Menahem, PhD.
The dust is slowly settling after Apple’s announcement of its Vision Pro “spatial computing” headset. According to Apple, “Vision Pro creates an infinite canvas for apps that scales beyond the boundaries of a traditional display and introduces a fully three-dimensional user interface controlled by the most natural and intuitive inputs possible — a user’s eyes, hands, and voice.”
Having monitored technologies in the Extended Reality (AR/VR/MR) space closely in conversations with industry experts over the past years, I’m excited to finally see the direction that Apple has taken.
Last year, I spoke to Tomas Sluka, CEO and Co-founder of the AR natural vision display start-up CREAL, about the timeline of Augmented Reality glasses and a much anticipated Apple product. Tomas explained that:
“One of the main frontiers for full-scale AR is in the development of a display technology that gives true depth at any distance of an object with better immersion and a natural user experience. The sensors are there, the compute power is there, but the display is the weakest link. I see consumer-ready AR glasses appearing earliest by 2026. Apple and others might release a high-end AR device earlier but these won’t be truly glasses, rather headsets and smart glasses that will be fashion items with the performance of a hands-free smartwatch, not truly AR glasses.”
Tomas was spot on as it now appears, and the challenge he described still stands. By releasing a “2.5D” headset that allows the user to experience 2D screens in a 3D environment, Apple is making the mass consumer market familiar with the value proposition of extended reality. The familiar screen acts as a bridge to the spatial environment. By focusing on the user in a seated position, Apple tries to avoid the pitfall of motion sickness — which becomes more likely as the user walks around with a headset.
Apple’s other critical choice is to display content at distance rather than focus on an experience within the user’s personal space (arm’s reach and close up). The promise of personal space applications of AR are tremendous and range from surgery training to detailed product design and up-close mechanical tinkering. As Tomas explains in a recent post,
“Apple’s stereoscopic display (two slightly different angles of the same image to create 3D depth) could cause eye strain for the user, or loss of perceived resolution, if the content is placed within the personal space. The same effect caused by the same problem is present in every other headset on the market today. It may be even stronger in Vision Pro because there is much more (resolution) to lose and attract our focus on.”
The Vision Pro is a much needed intermediate step towards a more natural visual experience in mixed reality. Apple’s ecosystem of developers and its proven abilities to excite consumers about new technology will prove to be a major accelerator toward a new era of human-computer interaction.
About The Singularity Group
The Singularity Group (TSG) makes applied innovation investable in listed equities. TSG is the initiator of the Singularity Index™ (Bloomberg ticker: NQ2045), a global, all-sector benchmark and gold standard for applied innovation. The Singularity Strategies include The Singularity Fund (UCITS Lux), Singularity Reshoring, and the Singularity Small&Mid (UBS AMC). The Swiss investment advisory boutique works closely with the Singularity Think Tank, a network of entrepreneurs and academics with deep insights into innovation value chains. Their input forms the foundation of TSG’s proprietary innovation scoring system that quantifies the engagement of companies within a set of curated Singularity Sectors worldwide across all market capitalizations and industries. The Singularity Innovation Score (see below) defines how much value listed companies are generating through applied innovation.
The Singularity Innovation Score (SI-Score): A company’s SI-Score represents the percentage of its revenues associated with innovation. It reflects a company’s ability to create innovation versus commoditized business and cash flows, and its ability to participate in technological evolution. Changes in the SI-Score are just as important as the absolute value. A company’s SI-Score relative to its overall GICS sector can say a lot about the competitive standing and ability to gain and maintain market share. Regional SI-Scores can be used to evaluate the innovation power of markets as well as to gage companies’ standing in different regions.
Innovation Revenues: 4% of a 74 trillion USD global market: In 2022, the total revenues generated by the World’s listed equities amounted to USD 74 Trillion. TSG’s unique expert-led innovation screening and scoring methodology allows us to divide that amount into innovation revenues and non-innovation revenues. In 2022, roughly 4% (USD 3 Trillion) of global revenues qualified as innovation revenues.
For more information visit: www.singularity-group.com
