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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."
And idiot bloggers are already churning out shit about a phone a year away. Yawn
Technically any smartphone with a camera can become "augmented reality" with the right software.
Or a microphone and headphones. Probably lots of other combinations too. Augmentation of reality doesn't need to rely on visual components.
...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.
You're missing the part about the headset. Microsoft really kicked this into gear with HoloLens. Apple sees the writing on the wall with that. Google Glass was pretty inspirational, if you look at the videos they put out early on where glass was constantly reporting to you visually things in your surroundings. Those things never came to pass unfortunately.
Apple has a real opportunity here. If they can put all of this together (which is their strong suit) then we could really see a revolution in tech. VR has no appeal to me and I suspect most others. Its really only useful for gaming. AR on the other hand has so many possibilities that it is really incredible if we can truly get there. In a sense AR will do for us what internet searches originally did. Truly AR feels like the logical extension of todays technology.
Google failed to do it and Microsoft is slowly doing it. Apple is looking to make a big splash for the iPhones 10th anniversary next year so I wouldn't put it past them to do something like this.