Paul Morris·

Apple To Introduce AR Features Into iPhone First, In Smart Glasses Later

It makes perfect sense for companies like Apple Inc. to actively, if not aggressively, pursue products and services in the AR and VR technology space.

Apple has already made it abundantly clear that it definitely sees a future in at least augmented reality, but how that shift into the immersive space will actually manifest itself has been a topic of confusion. Now, a new report is suggesting that Apple’s focus is predominantly on iPhone, with “hundreds of engineers” dedicated to the cause.

It’s been common knowledge for quite some time that Apple has ambitions to hit the market with some augmented reality experiences in the coming months and years.

Many analysts and industry insiders have agreed on this roadmap, but have often disagreed on whether or not the features and experiences would be embedded in existing product lines, or if Apple would be looking to design and build a new range of products specifically designed to push AR and VR. This latest report suggests that it’s most definitely the former, at least initially, with Apple making use of internal engineers to push the boundaries of what is possible with iPhone:

Hundreds of engineers are now devoted to the cause, including some on the iPhone camera team who are working on AR-related features for the iPhone, according to one of the people. One of the features Apple is exploring is the ability to take a picture and then change the depth of the photograph or the depth of specific objects in the picture later; another would isolate an object in the image, such as a person’s head, and allow it to be tilted 180 degrees. A different feature in development would use augmented reality to place virtual effects and objects on a person, much the way Snapchat works.

Those features and experiments may definitely be of interest to the majority of iPhone owners, but its success would definitely be placed on Apple’s intentions to build its own hardware which differs from any existing product range.

Bloomberg is speculating that Apple will look to try and pick up where Google left off with the ill-fated Glass hardware in the form of its own smart glasses for AR, which could potentially involve a partnership with Carl Zeiss optics. Of course, immersive tech, such as AR, VR, and mixed reality, is unbelievably exciting at the moment, meaning it makes perfect sense for Apple to want to be at the forefront of that explosion.

(Source: Bloomberg)

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