The newspaper says that Apple is working with TSMC, its primary processor manufacturer, to develop a new kind of augmented reality display that's printed directly on wafers, or the base layer for chips. The transparent displays currently on the market have a limited field of view in which they can display graphics, are often not bright enough for daylight use, and generally could be better suited for all-day wear.Īpple's working on solving this problem, too, according to a report in Nikkei Asia.
But according to Bloomberg, that project still faces additional work on technical issues such as miniaturization and lens technology.ĭisplay technology is another limiting factors for augmented reality.
#The next big thing in cell phone technology software#
The report says this device could cost thousands of dollars and be available only in low volumes - more typical of a test platform for software developers than the mass-market products Apple usually releases.Įventually Apple could take lessons it learns from the virtual reality headset and apply it to a pair of lightweight AR glasses with transparent displays. Its first shot will reportedly a battery-powered headset that's primarily designed for virtual reality, but with on-board cameras to enable augmented reality as well. Here's what the biggest companies in tech are doing to try and make augmented reality the next big thing: AppleĪpple's generation-defining success with the iPhone has made it the company to watch in augmented reality - even though the company has never confirmed it is working on a headset, glasses or any other kind of head-worn computer.īoland says that if Apple were to release a pair of AR glasses, it could "determine the fate of the AR industry," given the company's track record of popularizing new technologies.Ī report from Bloomberg last month suggested Apple's first AR product could be out as early as next year. But it will be transformative in narrower ways, and within a targeted set of use cases and verticals." "It's not a silver bullet for everything we do in life and work as once hyped. It's not the revolutionary platform shift touted circa-2016," said Mike Boland, technology analyst and founder of ARtillery Intelligence, in a recent report. "That's where we now sit in spatial computing's lifecycle.
The few companies who are actively producing AR glasses are mostly focused on work scenarios, like manufacturing and medicine.
Today, the most common use cases are much more mundane, including smartphone-based games and apps like Pokemon Go or Apple's Ruler app, which use the phone's screen and camera rather than relying on glasses or another set of screens sitting on your face. More positive visions imagine having important information coming directly into your view, exactly when you want it. All the big tech players - Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Amazon - are in the game as well.įuturists and screenwriters have conjured blue-sky visions of what could happen with advanced computer glasses - one episode of the dystopian anthology "Black Mirror" explored a world where people could "block" certain people out of their view. But Apple's not the only company working on these products.