Apple’s new offering – this time, it’s personal!

This week,?Apple unveiled?its brand new Vision Pro head-mounted display at its headquarters in Cupertino, California. The $3,500 (￡2,808) price tag is as hefty as its array of high-tech features – for those that can afford it, this new headgear will allegedly change the way we interface with not just digital spaces – think,?the Metaverse?– but also the world around us. So what can Vision Pro do? Thanks to its innovative EyeSight feature, the device will allow users to seamlessly transition from AR (augmented reality) to VR (virtual reality) on the fly; it’s an impressive advancement of pre-existing ideas.

For a company that has empowered and encouraged fitness and interconnectivity with its products, this?revolution?in spatial computing, as Apple puts it so succinctly, seems to be a surprisingly insular experience.

A premium price point and the opportunity to exist in an insular reality where one can watch movies in an empty digital cinema might sound appealing to your typical Apple evangelists. One of the biggest questions that remain, however, is what the practical applications of this device will be. ‘Killer software’, or lack thereof has been a significant hurdle for head-mounted displays – typically, the adoption and uptake of a product fuels software development and diversity.

What can Vision Pro do for the industry?

What Apple hasn’t focused its Vision on, so far, is industry. It’s prohibitively expensive, yes, but it packs an impressive array of technology – everything from tiny 4K screens to infrared gesture sensors is in there. But what will that be used for??According to LightGuide, augmented reality has the potential to transform the industry, and with good reason. Imagine: walking around a digital structure, designed on a computer, in real-time,?in?the setting it’s due to be built in. Even Nintendo’s now-defunct 3DS device could utilise augmented imagery to project Pokémon onto a table; here, it’s the reported immersion and streamlining that’s so exciting.

Just don’t expect the battery to last quite as long in practice: the Visual Pro’s power source – a wired battery pack – only lasts two hours when it’s not plugged in. It’s hardly a day’s work on-site, or at the office. This writer’s had longer meetings!

Seeing things differently

One sector the Vision Pro could enter is training and upskilling; imagine truly immersive learning experiences. One of the downsides of wearing any head-mounted device is the lack of Facetime (literally) between?real?people. After all, it’s hard to show your face when wearing ski goggles stuffed with technology! Yet the Vision Pro has plenty of potential to transform training experiences, making them fully interactive – imagine being able to witness best practice in a role not just on paper, but in person?before?you start the job. Likewise, imagine an experience akin to a?hazard detection test?from inside the digital vehicle.

Whilst the Vision Pro lacks haptic feedback, its potential in healthcare is nevertheless present. Augmented reality has always lent itself to sci-fi visions of surgery, and it’s easy to consider this technology empowering doctors. Overlaying vitals next to a patient sounds like an Iron Man HUD-based dream, but Vision Pro's practical application for physicians cannot be understated. For now, beyond passive forms of media and see-through sensors, it’s not clear what Apple’s grand vision for the Vision Pro is.

What would?you?use the Vision Pro for, as a professional??

#technology #experience #tech #apple #applevr # #digital #augmentedreality #media #training #work?