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Apple-Feature

Over the last few years, Microsoft has staked out an interest and position in augmented reality (AR) equally opposed to virtual reality (VR). As the proper noun implies, "augmented" reality is about showing the user additional data or cues over and above what they can run into in the existent world, while virtual reality is used to project an entirely different surround from wherever the user is actually standing. Microsoft'southward HoloLens is i of the first high-profile AR headsets, while games similar Pokemon Get accept go smash hits in the real world cheers to the manner they leverage augmented reality to project virtual Pokemon into every twenty-four hour period life.

Apple tree has stayed out of either marketplace to-date, simply that may be about to change. In a contempo interview with the Washington Mail, Cook was asked what he thought of augmented or virtual reality. He responded:

I recall AR [augmented reality] is extremely interesting and sort of a core applied science. So, yes, it'south something we're doing a lot of things on behind that curtain that nosotros talked about.

What's interesting nigh this isn't the fact that Cook is enlightened of or interested in AR — plenty of companies undoubtedly are, peculiarly after the success of Pokemon Go — but that he'd draw it every bit a core technology when Apple, to date, has done absolutely zip with the characteristic.

Apple and interfaces

Apple's greatest forcefulness, historically, has been its ability to capture new interfaces and suit them for piece of cake use. Apple didn't invent the mouse or the modern GUI, simply information technology popularized both with its initial Mac 128K in 1984. The iPhone wasn't the outset smartphone or the first device with a touchscreen, but it was the beginning smartphone to treat touch as the primary means of interacting with a device without a need for a stylus or keypad.

Augmented reality has the potential to rewrite the rules of interface blueprint similar few products before it. AR has been a mainstay of science fiction for decades — a tricorder is an AR device with a sophisticated sensor package that tin can browse a local area for a wide range of measurements, then report those measurements back to the user. While Star Trek rarely showed precisely what the user saw every bit output, multiple Star Trek episodes characteristic the device being used to browse for a general anomaly before honing in and following it in a specific direction. Deep Space Nine established that the bridges of Jem'Hadar warships don't have forward-facing viewscreens — they take article of clothing devices that projection a heads-up display to each individual. While this isn't exactly the same as AR technology, there's nothing about the arrangement that implies it tin't be used to communicate other information every bit well.

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But — and this is key — in order for AR to get more than a minor feature, it'south going to accept to evolve and abound up. This has meaning ramifications for every aspect of system pattern (and a few for the real globe as well). Pokemon Go already has a reputation as a battery killer, precisely considering it leverages multiple sensors and devices within your smartphone at the same time.

We don't know how Apple tree envisions its AR system working or whether its part of the company'south car project or if it would whorl out on an iPhone. But integrating AR into software is difficult, and demonstrating its use case is even trickier. Niantic had a hitting with Pokemon Go because it was able to trade on an established game franchise and use expertise gleaned from its previous AR title, Ingress. Whatever push to bring AR into the real world as a full general utilise case volition accept to learn from previous high-contour attempts that have gone awry (Amazon'due south short-lived Fire Telephone, for case, could apply the device's cameras to show you products y'all could purchase online).

Information technology'll probably all the same be a few years before we starting time to see AR showing upward in devices and software as a rule, only information technology'southward not too early to plan for it — and Apple has good reason to try and position itself to catch that wave. That's probably what Apple had in mind when it bought AR software programmer Metaio last year as well as Flyby Media in January 2016.