What’s so special about Apple Vision Pro?
The name of the device speaks volumes. Vision is not just “seeing,” or “displaying. Vision is vision – the ability to see, to behold. And here Apple seems to be hinting that it will give us the opportunity to learn to see anew, on a whole new level, beyond our capabilities in space and time. Vision Pro is a digital transition to full three-dimensional interaction, in which two-dimensional interfaces and elements become just a small component of a whole, three-dimensional (and possibly four-dimensional, but more on that later) world.
The Vision Pro is the first full-fledged XR headset whose UX design incorporates switching across the virtual-reality spectrum. The Vision Pro creators’ vision is not limited to creating separate solutions for VR and AR modes separately. Instead, it looks at a complete, holistic augmented reality paradigm in which a person can interact across its entire spectrum, moving seamlessly through it.
You may say that this is an exaggeration, and there is nothing fundamentally new about Apple Visio Pro that we haven’t seen in devices like Magic Leap, MS HoloLens, Meta Quest Pro, etc. My point, however, is that you are wrong. The key factor limiting the value of a product (including a device) is the idea of what the user experience should look like for that product, implemented at all levels based on UX design principles. Perhaps hardware-wise, all of the devices listed above made claims to perform individual functions, and provide a section of the augmented reality spectrum, but none of the devices enabled the full spectrum, having failures and gaps in the hardware, ecosystem, interfaces, and applications. In fact, in each case we saw that there was a disconnect between the expectations of how it should work (so that it would be convenient) and how it worked (if it worked at all). Judging by what Apple shows in its promos – the Vision Pro will indeed be the first full-fledged XR headset.
But what’s it for, at $3,499?
“The core product of today is the user experience, in and of itself. The value of a virtual user experience is that it can be almost anything. Its value will depend on how comprehensible it is, and how well it fits into the picture of the world, while being unique, and how well it is implemented technically.”
Kyr Poskonoff, founder of LikeXR
Vision Pro is a device “on the top of the edge” that will give its users an exclusive level and quality of experience never before possible. Its users will be the first to see the incredible dimension of the metaverse, and will be able to interact with it almost as they do with the real world. It is our experience that is the foundation, and determines the potential of our outlook, our ideas, our vision. The Vision Pro, and the experience it will provide, will be an unprecedented advantage to its users, and will booster their creativity, enabling them to work with objects at a new level of complexity and abstraction – that is what’s so special about Apple Vision Pro.
Here are some of Apple’s Vision Pro features
3D video recording.
The headset will literally scan the world in real time, and record it in such a way that it can later show you what’s recorded, “drawing” dynamic objects into a static environment that remains unchanged, as if combining three-dimensional scenes of past and present, right before your eyes, in real time.
Rebuilding and reconstructing the real environment in real time.
This is an inversion of the previous process, which allows you to look “into the future” of the environment you are in, or variants of it.
Transferring dynamic elements into the virtual environment (augmented virtuality), putting virtual dynamic elements into the real environment (augmented reality).
For example, moving Apple Vision Pro users into the same virtual classroom, or into each other’s rooms, moving augmented reality objects into your room.
Moving objects from reality to augmented reality, to virtual reality, and vice versa.
Imagine you don’t like the design of your couch. You scanned it, transferred it to the virtual environment, where you fine-tuned it with the virtual editor, transferred it back in mixed reality mode, and replaced your real sofa with it
It doesn’t make any sense. How can we use it?
Navigate in real space using elements of the digital layer.
Imagine that all your actual spaces are digitized, and you now inhabit them not only in reality, but also in virtuality. You can build routes, and follow navigation elements in augmented reality, leave marks and hints, attach interactive three-dimensional objects to real objects and locations, and much more. Oh, and – all this can be seen not only by you, but also by anyone you allow (of course, those who have Apple Vision Pro).
A virtual assistant, companion or pet
Who interacts with your real space. I mean, we’ve all seen those virtual assistants standing in front of you like statues where you put them. Now imagine that he can walk behind you, sit next to you on the sofa, or in the car, drink his virtual coffee and put it on your real table. Remember the virtual wife of the main character in Blade Runner 2049? Yep!
Metaverse, games and more
And, of course, interaction in a completely virtual environment. Only now you can be represented by an authentic avatar, with facial expressions and the ability to express emotions, which looks completely like you in real life. Well, or you can change it however you like!
All augmented and mixed reality features such as catalogs, AR assistants, AR tutorials.
Only now with great UX – control interactions with pupil movements, hands and voice!
Countless other ways.
At LikeXR, we keep a close eye on the news about Apple Vision Pro. Our developers are already familiar with the documentation, and are waiting to get started with xrOS (the operating system for the XR headset). At its core, app development for Apple Vision Pro will rely on all the same tools we use to create interactive AR/VR apps for various types of devices (including Apple platforms). If you see the potential of this new device and platform, and want to be one of the first to release your XR app for Vision Pro – contact us. Not only will we take over development, but we’ll help shape the product idea (do audience research, proof-of-concept and prototyping).
Today we’ve been talking about what’s so special about Apple Vision Pro. We will soon be releasing an article in which we will go into more detail about the specifics of developing for xrOS for Apple Vision Pro.
