Surrounded by App, Apple Vision Pro pushes you into the space "big screen"

2 hours, this is the total duration of the live broadcast of the first day of the Apple Developers Conference (WWDC) in 2023. On YouTube alone, there are 4.839 million views. When the press conference started, it was 1:00 a.m. Beijing time on June 6, and many technology bloggers streamed the press conference live.

Apple CEO Tim Cook led the crowd, starting with the 15-inch MacBook Air, and opened a series of announcements for Apple's new hardware and software products, including iOS 17. The press conference lasted for 1 hour and 23 minutes, and the drowsiness in front of the screen was dispelled.

Apple’s head-mounted display hardware, Apple Vision Pro, is officially unveiled. The IOS-based App is displayed in front of the wearer’s eyes with space as a screen. interface, supports iris unlocking, and can also scan out your digital avatar.

Cook defined the Apple Vision Pro as a new type of computer that exhibits spatial computing capabilities. The revolutionary product that Cook regards as "changing the way people communicate, collaborate, work, and entertain" has also given a "terrible" price. The initial price of $3,499 is equivalent to 25,000 yuan, and it will be launched in the United States early next year. Are you ready to save up for Vision Pro?

Handle-free eye/sound/hand control interface

Not a VR headset, nor just AR glasses, Apple defines Vision Pro as "a new type of computer" that augments reality by seamlessly blending the real world with the digital world.

To put it bluntly, when you wear this Vision Pro that (just) looks like a VR device, the IOS App you are familiar with can appear in front of you in a size larger than your real person, with "super large font size" Apps seem to float in the physical space you are in.

Wearing Vision Pro, when users interact with applications, they are no longer limited by the display screen of the mobile phone or computer. In other words, the space in front of you is your screen. Audio is presented around you. When you use it to make a FaceTime video call, or open the video conferencing software, the other party in the display box is like being in the same room as you.

Video calling with Vision Pro

All applications can be expanded and stacked on the spatial "canvas", and even the interfaces of different applications can be expanded in one space, all you need to do is turn your head. If you receive a 3D image in the message, you can pull it out of the message interface to display it in the space, and play with it around.

Users multitask as in physical space

This picture is already very similar to the holographic computer that often appears in science fiction films. The difference is that we need to wear a Vision Pro that looks a little bulky. When you think that the function of displaying images in a large space is available in some VR headsets on the market, Vision Pro will soon show the side of "I have what others have, and I have what no one has".

There is no control handle common to VR headsets. When wearing the Vision Pro to operate the App in front of the face, use eye movement to select, use voice commands and input, and use gestures to slide through the air. As Cook said, users can use "the most natural, Vision Pro's interface is controlled by the most intuitive tools" that is, eyes, voice, and hands.

Charts are highlighted when eye movements are applied

In addition to the absence of handles, the Vision Pro's fabric-mounted headband is missing the battery pack common to VR rigs. The direct benefit of this is that it doesn't hurt to wear it while lying down. The Vision Pro uses a single power cord and mobile charger to power the device for up to 2 hours of battery life.

Like many VR devices, people wearing Vision Pro can also see people and objects outside the headset. The difference is that when someone appears nearby, the other party can see the wearer's eyes from the outside screen of Vision Pro. This innovation The feature is called Eye Sight.

One of the functions of Eye Sight is to use the display eyes to transmit the status of the wearer to the outside world. When the user is immersed in Vision Pro, the external screen will send a clear signal to the people around you that you cannot see them at present. Once someone appears, it will The eyes of the wearer will be shown to the other party to solve the problem of communication between the user and the outside world.

Once upon a time, the Mac used the touchpad to change people's habit of using the mouse, and the iPhone replaced the keys of the mobile phone with the screen. Now, Vision Pro is defined as a "new type of computer", which means replacing the Mac and the iPhone. And Cook believes that Mac demonstrates the ability of personal computing, iPhone demonstrates mobile computing capability, and Vision Pro will demonstrate spatial computing, which will change the way humans communicate, collaborate, work and entertain.

M2 and R1 dual-chip configuration is priced at 25,000

To achieve the same performance as a personal computer, Apple Vision Pro needs to have powerful computing performance. In addition, as a wearable real-time display device, it also needs a real-time sensing system to provide immersive 3D Audiovisual effects also require display technology.

It is reported that Vision Pro adopts a MicroOLED screen with 23 million pixels, combined with a three-element lens that can make the display screen ubiquitous, and finally allows the video to be presented in the device with 4K resolution, outputting wide color gamut and high dynamic range. screen. The Vision Pro's ability to control the interface with the eyes comes from the high-performance eye-tracking technology completed by the high-speed camera.

23 million pixel screen

Sophisticated hardware configuration requires high-performance chips to process data. In addition to using Apple's M2 chip to ensure quiet and cool operation, the Vision Pro also runs in parallel an R1 chip designed to handle real-time sensor tasks-it handles the data input tasks of 12 cameras, 5 sensors and 6 microphones. , capable of streaming new images to the display in 12 milliseconds. This speed is 8 times faster than the blink of an eye, which solves the problem of dynamic picture discomfort caused by sensor-to-display delay.

The fuselage is equipped with M2 and R1 dual chips

If you think that the "conspicuous" function of the EyeSight external screen of Vision Pro is only realized by the perspective mirror, you are wrong. In fact, this is the 3D transparent effect formed after the Micro OLED of the biconvex lens projects the correct viewing angle of the wearer's eyes to the outside.

The audience who stayed up late to watch the live broadcast complained when they saw the actor wearing Vision Pro on the FaceTime call, "The person who is videoing with you, seeing you wearing the headset to talk to them, and staring at the two screens with big eyes, looks a bit stupid ah."

Soon, this idea was slapped in the face by Apple's follow-up demonstration. Vision Pro has already used machine learning. When the user quickly registers with the front sensor, the system will use an advanced encoder to decode the neural network, and then use a large amount of training data to dynamically match your face and hand movements to create a digital avatar. When you video chat with someone wearing the Vision Pro, the other person will see your digital avatar instead of a blinking "electronic eye" headset.

In addition, Vision Pro is also equipped with Zeiss magnetic prescription lenses, which can be used by people with myopia in a mating way. In addition to these high-precision hardware piles, Vision Pro also has the VisionOS operating system designed for spatial computing, which is another member of Apple's IOS family.

All in all, Apple seems to have thought of and solved for you every inconvenience you can think of about headsets. The only slot exposed from the demonstration session is probably the line connecting the Vision Pro and the power bank, which can also be seen from the front of the wearer. But compared with the powerful augmented reality function, this is also a flaw.

As for how much this epoch-making new computer that redefines the headset will cost, Apple also disclosed: $3,499. Currently equivalent to about 25,000 yuan. From the price to the display function, Vision Pro can be called the "King of Machines" in the current XR hardware. Whether the function is really as shown in the demonstration, we have to wait for it to be officially listed before seeing is believing.

There is still more than half a year to save money for it. Apple disclosed that Vision Pro will be launched in the United States early next year.