“Smart” glasses from Google failed on the market, but Apple is rumored to have begun developing its own analog. How successful will be the product of the company from Cupertino?
How to say the insiders, the device will connect wirelessly to iPhone and can use the effect of augmented reality. The project is in its initial stage and is covered by an aura of secrecy insiders asked not to tell even their names.
It is known that Apple has already discussed the project smart glasses with potential suppliers, as well as ordered to test a small number of displays from a single source. The final decision on this project will be made in early 2018.
Apple CEO Tim cook is under pressure amid a slowdown in iPhone sales, which accounts for two-thirds of the company’s revenues. In July, he expressed enthusiasm about the technology of augmented reality (AR), so that the glasses can be the first hardware product from Apple, which focuses directly on AR.
The main argument in favor of active management of the developments in the field of augmented reality is to purchase the Apple startup Metaio in may last year. German developer owned a portfolio of 170 patents in the field of augmented reality and immediately put the company in 11th place in the world in the number of relevant documents. Kupertinovtsy is still ahead of Google, Microsoft, Sony, and Samsung.
In 2013, Apple acquired PrimeSense, the 3D-tracking which have not yet appeared in any serial device logo is a bitten Apple. Engineers of this company spetsializiruyutsya on creating cameras registered movement, and became famous for developing the hardware of the first Kinect.
Previously it was assumed that the cameras, Kinect style will appear in the mythical Apple TV. But a tuner is not everything, and now experts believe that the first device they will be augmented reality glasses. Last year the company hired engineer nick Thompson, who led the development of a sound part of the project smart glasses HoloLens at Microsoft. In augmented reality the sound plays the most important role because in many respects, it focuses on the people, determining the position of objects in space.
While Apple carefully hides its plans for products that support augmented reality, Google had to invest a large amount in start-up Magic Leap, which develops the MR-points based on the technology of light field, Microsoft has unveiled a prototype of its own similar device, and a start Meta and is openly developing such a gadget for several years. But the Empire of Steve jobs can not be criticized for restraint, because her main goal was, and remains, a minimum of experiments on its customers.
