A few people have asked me about VisionPro...

I alluded to this in a prior post, I’ve been dabbling in Mixed Reality, AR and VR since it wasn’t cool (circa 2011), including work on the first Oculus dev kit, and having the idea to gaffa tape a 'leap motion' onto the front of the device to see if we could go hands free. I've seen things you people wouldn't believe... ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion... I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannh?user Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... wait, no - that’s blade runner - but this technology feels a bit blade runner-y to me, in that slightly disconnected us/them sort of way.

Anyway, a bunch of folks have asked me what my thoughts are on VisionPro, and I didn’t have an immediate reaction that wasn’t Eurovision-night levels of snark (as almost all the technologists I know had). Having a week to reflect on the news, here’s my POV for what it is worth:

Broadly the TLDR, whilst I can see some really interesting use cases, there isn’t too much beyond the hype at present, but the future of this could be interesting.

For example, I helped a little bit to introduce VR into the NHS for complimentary pain medication, and it was wildly successful. VisionPro isn’t by any stretch of the imagination compatible with that for several reasons I believe. Things like infection control (that headband and eye surround…), all the (admittedly minimal) information at the moment talks about it being a secure device for a single user. Well, that’s not going to work to hand out to folks, and return.?The sheer cost of it as well. In comparison, the VR device I've used in healthcare (Smileyscope, pictured above) is a registered class-1 medical device. I can't see Apple going down this route.

So, with that in mind, this feels like a toe dipped in the water for Apple. With something mass market coming behind it if the community and more use-cases are found. But, I still think they’ve over priced it. Even aimed at that higher end market. It should have been a loss leader. Maybe it is, maybe that glass front costs A LOT!?

The demo ‘sizzle’ reel wasn’t that sizzley. A lot of the examples were quite flat and mundane, as opposed to anything genuinely exciting. Numbers spreadsheets, flat apps. Where’s the depth? (In both senses of the word). The only bit of depth was a Mickey Mouse two second demo of Mickey jumping onto a chair. I would certainly like to see more of this sort of thing, especially from Disney.

Speaking of Disney, I think spatial computing could also be a real play into storytelling, especially with apple getting into films & TV. I imagine they see it as a platform for the ‘next innovation in cinema’. The tell here is the hat tip to 3D films, that most of us have already forgotten about. You can see what’s next “if you thought 3D was good, wait until you are *in* the movie”.?ILM and Lucasfilm did do a VR experience that popped up to Westfield shopping centre, as well as Disney World, and it was a wild success (so much so, I don’t get why it didn’t tour/continue)!?

I said a long time ago, I’m surprised a famous filmmaker hasn’t experimented with something like ‘resident evil’ as a 360 film experience. The first game on the PS1 (or simply PlayStation to those of my era) had fixed camera points and the story revolved around it. At the time it was a limitation of the console I imagine. But it was surprisingly effective. Imagine if that fixed point of view could circle around itself, with you controlling the view? It would be a very different directorial role, as you would have to direct the mise-en-scène more holistically than the viewpoint. Disney did a little experiment with this, with an app that I can’t remember the name of, I want to say ‘LittlStar’ or something similar, but I can’t find any trace of it! Basically it allowed you to ‘be on stage’ at the same time as a performance, looking where you wanted to look. It was fun, but ultimately a forgettable experience because it was so disjointed.?

It would be a marketeers dream if the eye tracking data ever got out, but I believe Apple when they say it is private, I’ve seen in some of the post-announcement information some of the ways they’re keeping it private and it should remain that way. That said, Apple must surely have to give out information about focus and eye strain to help guide developers create comfortable experiences. This in itself will be interesting data. In my passing research, only about half of folks can tolerate being in a VR experience for more than around 15 minutes.?

What do I think is the future in this space? At $3500, this particular device isn’t going to be a mass market device, the same as the Mac Pro isn’t a mass market device either, but still sells in numbers worthy of creating successor products over time. The market that uses Mac Pro, is absolutely a complimentary market for this however. Some Mac Pro users are filmmakers, and I think given the right tools, this could be a really interesting part of the film making process, especially for remote viewings of dailys?in a cinema-style environment.?

I also feel that there’s some really interesting opportunities for accessibility here, although what people might feel about having to wear something like this to easier access the internet or documents I do not know, but things like Navilens for example, could be ramped up 10x with all the additional sensors.

But if Spatial compute is going to take off, it needs a mass market device, for under ￡1000, a Vision SE or something. Now, interestingly enough I saw that Apple had bought a company, MIRA, last week. https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/06/apple-acquires-mira-a-startup-building-lightweight-ar-hardware/

Not that many folks had heard of it, but I was lucky enough not only to talk to the founders, but when I was in aviation but we actually bought a couple of units to test back in 2017. It was amazing! Anyone that knew me at the time probably heard me talk about it as being incredible, endlessly.

It really considered the user, as it was lightweight, needed no extra technology (the iPhone just clips onto it) and the visor was clear and large. It was also connected by magnets so it was really safe to use in most environments. It created a ‘peppers ghost’ effect with your iPhone, to bring up a menu and options, allowing for FaceTime calls back to base, or cut down versions of apps. Now with the high density sensors included in most iPhones now, I imagine there is scope to include detailed (ish) hand tracking. The technology was also reportedly used on the Mario Kart ride at Universal Studios… see previous point about storytelling…?So yeah, we need something like that. But even this, is at the super base level - it’s an accessory effectively. But, it would fit in a larger ecosystem; Accessory, mid level device, high end device.

Back to this, I still struggle with the fact we haven’t seen a headset like this that uses liquid crystal to turn pass through vision to a screen. This technology has been around for years (and works incredibly well in the viewfinder for my Fujifilm X100F, but it’s been in that camera since the original X100 in 2010!?

So yeah, in summary - it’s an interesting start, part of no doubt a bigger play by Apple. But, like all things it could be the next iPad (which arrived at the exact right time), or it could be the next Newton (too ahead of its time to penetrate the market). Watch this space.