Apple working on a AR/VR headset
Apple CEO Tim Cook has shown an interest in augmented reality (AR) for over a year now.
“I regard it as a big idea, like the smartphone. The smartphone is for everyone, we don’t have to think the iPhone is about a certain demographic, or country, or vertical market… I think AR is that big, it’s huge,” Cook said in an interview with The Independent last year’
This attitude seems to be the same for virtual reality as well. That shows in one of their current projects, which is a combo augmented reality and virtual reality device that is slated for release in 2020. The project is currently codenamed “T288.” It is still uncertain how certain this release is, but the tech company has said that they want to create it with 8K displays for each eye.
No company has been able to do this yet. One came close with the Pimax 8K VR headset. Even though this headset is called “8K” that is mainly a deceptive marketing strategy, because it is only 4K for each eye panel. 8K for each eye, because that is somewhat close to what human vision converted to pixel density “equates” to.
I put that in quotes because those two values don’t really correlate, but as pixel density gets higher, it becomes more difficult for humans to distinguish that from a true photo.
Getting something to run two 8K panels would be a pretty difficult task, because to run the Pimax 8K in a video game effectively, the system required a Nvidia GTX 1080 (the development team was unsure if it was a 1080 ti or not). A 1080 is one of the most high-end consumer cards you can buy, and currently costs about $600 for a third-party non-reference card.
The Pimax 8K itself costs about $500 dollars as well. So, while high-quality VR is becoming more available it will still take some time for the costs to go down.
Back to Apple’s headset, the company is planning it to be wireless as well. According to CNET, “Apple’s headset would connect toa dedicated box using a high-speed, short-range wireless technology, according to a person familiar with the company’s plans.”
This wireless technology called “WiGig,” newer, faster second-generation won’t be available until a predicted 2019 release date, but the faster technology would allow for it to remove tethers from the high-end gaming consoles and PCs that run the high-quality VR headsets.
Apple appears to be shooting for a fully wireless VR experience while creating a true dual 8K display setup.
