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Will The iPhone 8 Include Augmented Reality? (bgr.com)
Earlier this month Mashable wrote "it's now even more obvious what [Apple] is working to bring to the masses, and it's probably not, as some rumors have indicated, virtual reality." They cited CEO Tim Cook's recent predictions that augmented reality "is going to become really big" -- he said it again on Thursday -- and BuzzFeed noted that Apple "has quietly put into place the components of what could prove to be an AR ecosystem:
The iPhone 7 Plus has...a two-camera system capable of gathering stereoscopic data and generating image depth maps... In Apple Watch, the company has a spatially-aware, wearable device outfitted with an accelerometer and GPS. In its new AirPod wireless earphones, Apple essentially has a pair of diminutive, spatially-aware microcomputers -- each one with an Apple W1 wireless chip (the company's first), two accelerometers, two optical sensors, beam-forming microphones, and an antenna... And sources tell BuzzFeed News that the company has recently been taking meetings with immersive content companies like Jaunt.
Their article also lists AR companies that Apple's bought over the last three years -- plus their patents for a "head-mounted display" and a "peripheral treatment for head-mounted displays." BGR adds that Tim Cook "likes to tease future products," and points out that Cook has even said Apple is working on AR features "behind the curtain". This casts a new light on those rumors of an all-glass case for next year's iPhone 8. Will the whole body of the phone become part of an Augmented Reality display system? (And could AR also explain Apple's aggressive push for wireless headphones?)
Their article also lists AR companies that Apple's bought over the last three years -- plus their patents for a "head-mounted display" and a "peripheral treatment for head-mounted displays." BGR adds that Tim Cook "likes to tease future products," and points out that Cook has even said Apple is working on AR features "behind the curtain". This casts a new light on those rumors of an all-glass case for next year's iPhone 8. Will the whole body of the phone become part of an Augmented Reality display system? (And could AR also explain Apple's aggressive push for wireless headphones?)
It will make you think it has a headphone socket?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
"There’s no substitute for human contact"
And idiot bloggers are already churning out shit about a phone a year away. Yawn
I'm hoping for a kitchen sink!
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
...isnt iPhone specific. Technically any smartphone with a camera can become "augmented reality" with the right software.
In the phones case its simply just 3D graphics overlay, with plane/movement/motion tracking software.
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
Metro was an OK enough idea until MS implemented it and rammed it down everyone's throats. Similar well-meaning but fundamentally flawed reasoning is possible here.
Just as Metro took away the task bar in favor of invisible UI elements, Apple took away the analog jack in favor of wireless headphones.
An iphone7 with "dual cameras" is not capable of producing depth maps, just like none of the Android phones with two cameras, side by side, less than 1cm apart, can produce depth maps. These are two different cameras with different lenses, which are used to give 2D images greater dynamic range and resolution.
Stereo cameras, which are capable of producing depth maps and creating 3D images and environments, are two identical cameras that are placed at minimum one to two inches apart, as seen in the HTC Evo 3D, the Amazon Fire Phone, and the Lenovo Phab 2. They are fundamentally different.
I wonder if it will have a mode that will cancel out the Apple reality distortion bubble, turning the "one word: courage" speech into it's proper "fuck you, buy our shit" speech. ;)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
I feel like the oddball out with my Nexus phone and VW diesel.
An iphone7 with "dual cameras" is not capable of producing depth maps
And yet it does.
What's with the scare quotes around "dual cameras", anyway? Do you not believe that the 7 Plus has two cameras?
Why in the fuck are you asking me that? I came here to get the news, not to be asked what the news is. Shit.
"augmented reality", or as we called it 10 years ago when we did it with a camera we manufactured, "blending two images together".
I read somewhere a few months ago, that Apple was snapping-up AR (and VR?) talent. They don't do that for no reason.
Ah, here's an article...
An iphone7 with "dual cameras" is not capable of producing depth maps, just like none of the Android phones with two cameras, side by side, less than 1cm apart, can produce depth maps. These are two different cameras with different lenses, which are used to give 2D images greater dynamic range and resolution.
Stereo cameras, which are capable of producing depth maps and creating 3D images and environments, are two identical cameras that are placed at minimum one to two inches apart, as seen in the HTC Evo 3D, the Amazon Fire Phone, and the Lenovo Phab 2. They are fundamentally different.
Hey dumbass. Apple never claimed they were used for stereoscopic imaging. Their miniscule parallax is being used ONLY to create a pseudo-depth-map, for use with a software-simulated "narrow depth of field" effect that is often used in portrait (and other) photography with "real" cameras. The effect is so popular that it was actually worth the effort and expense in software and hardware, apparently. The fact that they were able to get additional utility out of the 2nd camera by fitting it with a "telephoto" lens zoom-range was just bonus.
Or maybe it was the other-way around. Maybe they wanted the optical telephoto, and someone said "Hey! I bet we can generate a fake narrow-focus effect with that!". Either way, the idea was NEVER "3D photos".
just please dear god bring back SWIPE TO UNLOCK!! :'(
Yeah, I'm kinda with you on that one...
Magic Window!
I'm old enough to get that joke!
The real question is: will this be the year we get wireless charging?
I suspect as much. It will allow the iPhone 8 to be totally sealed, which is my prediction.
Also, Apple has been hiring Wireless Charging talent for about the past 9 months.
If there's accelerometers in the AirPods, this is a huge opportunity. Seems like a program that detects when your AirPods fall out and hit the floor, then directs you to find them, would be worth gold.
The AirPods actually use their built-in IR sensors to determine when you take one of them out. It will automatically pause music, and some other possibilities depending on whether you are making a call, etc. It was kinda cool, but I don't have time to run down the article that mentioned that right now.