Rumors around a set of presumed-to-be-in-development Apple Glasses have been circulating for several years at this stage, with patents on the potential mixed-reality headset from the Cupertino tech giant dating back as far as 2015, and now a flurry of recent speculation offers a tantalizing glimpse of what could be a particularly premium device.
According to a report from The Information, Apple’s forthcoming headset will feature “more than a dozen cameras […], 8K displays and advanced technology for eye tracking”.
As always, it’s worth noting that these details aren’t concrete or official by any stretch, with The Information citing “a person with direct knowledge of the device” as its source on these latest rumors.
Less than 24 hours ago, we reported on speculation that the unit could land in early 2022 with LiDAR tracking and cost in the realm of $1,200 (about £900 / AU$1,600). The report from The Information, however, puts that cost at $3,000 (about £2,200 / AU$4,000) – a price point that would put it more firmly in the business and professional space than the consumer market.
Other inclusions in this new wave of speculation include a “thimble-like device” that would act as a control interface for the user, a mix of hand- and eye-tracking tech, and the ability to pass video of the real world to the user in real time (it would be like wearing nothing at all).
The eye-tracking capabilities could be used to actively render the display at lower resolutions when they enter a wearer’s periphery, so as to only spend processing power on the area of the display that the viewer is focusing on at any given time.
AR for all?
Apple Glasses (or Apple Glass, depending what rumor you read) could also sport the company’s new M1 chipset, as seen in its most-recent Macs, if last month’s speculation is to be believed. If you consider this along with the dual 8K displays (one for each eye), dozen cameras, and all the tracking tech, the $3,000 price tag is looking rather likely, if not conservative.
As mentioned earlier, this is all still in the realm of speculation, and with the wave of reported features, we’ll have to wait to see which ones actually end up in the final unit. There are even a few different postulations over whether there will be two versions, one with a mixed-reality AR focus and another purely for VR.
As this will be Apple’s first foray into the world of dedicated wearables for AR/VR, we wouldn’t be surprised if the high price tag eventuated, with a more limited release targeting the specialist market in order to test the waters for potential consumer products down the line.