AR, VR, LMMs, AI, XR. All these words have become far too common in the modern world. It seems like everyone is making an AI assistant or making an XR headset (an umbrella term for AR/VR), and now Apple has joined the ranks. But, how good is it and what does this mean for the rest of the industry?
On Feb. 2 of this year, Apple is releasing the Vision Pro, an XR headset claimed as the start of spatial computing. While not being the first at making a headset like this (look at the Quest 3) Apple advertises it as the first saying, “You’ve never seen everything like this before.” And Apple does have the numbers to back it up with a 4k display per eye and new eye tracking technology. But we have seen this tech already so is it worth the $3,500 price tag?
Some reviewers have received the headset and the reviews are mixed, people like Marques Brownlee and The Verge have called it “almost magic” but have both complained about the 1.5 pound weight only on the front. There has also been talk about avatars and the face scanning that’s done to achieve it being in the uncanny valley along with the EyeSight, a type of passthrough for keeping eye contact with the headset on, but reviewers call it dim and hard to see. But how does an outside observer view it?
“I believe it is an amazing experience, but needs more improvements in price point,” Sebastian Tabers said when asked about the price. But the headset is also mysterious where there isn’t a lot of info about what happens to your eye data or your face scans. “I believe that, for this to be done in the future, there must be more public knowledge about it.”
While it’s new and exciting there always needs to be caution. Apple is very forward about privacy (even doing a whole ad campaign about it) but not every company is, what happens when a data leak gives out data that is too personal? The law needs to update with the times and until then we should always take a second look at who we trust with our virtual and physical identities.
