Let's start from the term AR, AR stands for Augmented Reality, similar to the term VR Virtual Reality where a whole world is simulated digitally as in video games where you can experience it as if you were in the video game as a character, Augmented reality is something of a crossover between Virtual reality and our Reality. In AR you can interact with an interface where both real-world and digital world objects will be present say for example you want to see a life-sized animated model of a dinosaur in your backyard. you can do that with AR technology today through your smartphones.
The image is a screengrab from the latest Apple WWDC 2021 teaser released by Apple highlighting glasses on the person. This sparked speculation of Apple AR Glasses' announcement in the upcoming event by the trillion-dollar tech giant.
Now imagine instead of your smartphones what if a pair of spectacles were to project this artificial reality onto your retinas? wouldn't that be amazing?
The new apple glasses or the EyePhone is going to be the next big thing after the iPhone, AirPods, and MacBook by apple. The first thing that may pop up in your mind is the fact that what about privacy? if the Ai is going to use augmented reality it must first see the environment and to do that it will use cameras and that was the reason why google glasses were not so popular, it was uncomfortable for people to be in front of a camera while talking to a person. to solve this apple is supposedly working on LIDAR sensing which will sense spaces and faces but will not be able to record people in the visual spectrum of light.
The potential is great, imagine having chat with people face to face without looking at a screen but looking at their AR hologram through your glasses and see them interact with your surroundings video games are going to be redefined as the characters will now be able to interact with your environment instead of conventional you the player interacting with their environment through the characters. Imagine a world where people will walk around wearing AR filters, yes real-life Snapchat filters will be a thing, and as annoying as it sounds it will surely produce a lot of creative energy.
Some of the other uses of AR tech are going to be in education and training in the places like medical institutes where students will learn how to operate on a human or an animal through the digital avatar of the patient model. Other uses will be to elaborate and visually explain what cant be done easily otherwise. Like space, microbiology, electrodynamics where mathematical and theoretical representation leads the core of the subject now will have the opportunity to be replaced by more practical and visual-based.
And even if the subject is already visually rich doesn't mean it's going to be accessible to all, for example, in the study of wildlife a person bound to a wheelchair will now be able to study wildlife in real-time through drones and Augmented reality through his glasses by sitting in a relatively comfortable spot that before. Monitoring of animals will become easier and richer for a lot more than before especially those with a physical ailment.
The second important thing to consider that this thing is around is the fact that Apple has already started to employ LIDAR sensors in their consoles, consider it as a test run for this upcoming AR technology because they have been showing keen interest in both AR hardware and software.
One of the problems that are going to be faced by a large number of audiences is dealing with prescription lenses and using AR glasses. The prescription glasses are supposed to be removed by AR glasses because it may be made on order and the glasses magnifying power is going to be adjusted as per the customer or the more fancy and less probable speculation is they are going to have inbuilt variable focal length lenses which is nothing but useless given that AR glasses are rarely going to be shared with anyone just like your iPhone so the need to variable focal length for every person is just useless for now and the more probable option is that the glasses will have lenses tailored according to every user need which they can modify after a period of time if they need to.
RELEASE DATE AND PRICE
its estimated price will be no less than $1500 for a flagship technology its expected apple to have this level of pricing. and it will only be used as far as we know with an iPhone because there is no way a spec will carry the robust amount of storage and cloud capability as of now. it must be coupled with your iPhone, consider the AR glasses or the eyephone as an extension of your iPhone to enhance your user experience for now.
Apple in their recent only 3-second long promotion for the new WWDC 2021 image above there is no room to fill information in a 3-second long promotion but the glasses are clearly highlighted. teasing an upcoming announcement for Apple's AR glasses to drop in 2022 if not late 2021.
