Based on the recent media appearances of Apple CEO Tim Cook, it wouldn’t be hard to predict the tech giant’s interest in Augmented Reality.
During his London visit, earlier this month, he restated his confidence in AR tech giving us vital hints about Apple’s heading in this new frontier.
“I’m excited about Augmented Reality because unlike Virtual Reality which closes the world out, AR allows individuals to be present in the world but hopefully allows an improvement on what’s happening presently” – Tim Cook said to The Independent.
Difference Between Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality (VR vs AR)
VR is a computer-generated projection of a world. AR is technology that adds digital objects into the real world. Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are both
AR is core technology
Tim Cook believes AR is not some product; rather, it is a core technology evolving into a global technology, like the smartphones did a decade earlier.
Another reason to believe Apple has an AR strategy built is – it fits perfectly to the main motto of the company – to offer best technology products to everyone without targeting any specific market, or country, or demographic. AR will have something for everyone for sure… and that’s huge!
There’s yet another reason we feel Apple is seriously working on AR.
There was a lot of news over the past few months around Apple working in the field of augmented and virtual reality.
Two recent patents granted to the company suggests of serious plans Apple has for AR integration into the upcoming iPhones.
One of these patents (U.S. Patent No: 9,560,273) is titled “Wearable information system having at least one camera”.
It describes an augmented reality system that detects its surroundings based on the camera and displays key information as a 3D image to users in real time.
The other patent (U.S. Patent No: 9,558,581) describes a method of representing virtual information blending with the real environment.
Both these patents were filed by a German company – Metaio. Interestingly, Apple acquired this company back in 2015 itself.
Acquisitions, Acquisitions and More Acquisitions
Apple has not hesitated in pumping huge R&D investments. Added to the tremendous work Apple has been doing to strengthen Intellectual Property, it has also been showing calculated aggression when it comes to acquisitions.
Apple has recently acquired several notable companies in the AR space – Metaio (an AR startup), Faceshift (works on motion capture technology), Emotient (an artificial intelligence startup), and Flyby Media (Google Tango app developers).
Looking into all these facts we can observe that Apple is steadily positioning itself to dominate the mobile AR market surpassing Google Tango.
The Fully Immersive Apple AR iPhone May Be Far Away
You may be surprised but we’re still far away from seeing mainstream AR and its because of both these reasons – Hardware, Content. Even though Pokemon Go managed to rock the world, not many people have even a clue of what AR is.
Undeniably we are at this point where the underlying technologies aren’t still at their best shape to offer consumers a truly remarkable experience. Just like any other budding technology, AR is currently taking its baby steps into the market and will eventually take time before the next iPhone comes packed with it.
Tim Cook too admitted that it will take time before everything falls in place with AR. However, Apple may produce another shocker of an innovation and announce a new iPhone with AR features in 2017. Let’s wait and hope to see it soon.
“VR is cool but AR has the potential to impact every single app and service we use in our phones”
Image Credits: USPTO