Image shows Apple has been working on Vision Pro since at least 2008

Apple announced its Vision Pro immersive glasses in June 2023 and impressed the market with a bold device with a futuristic design. However, contrary to popular belief, the company was working on this long before the new wave of hybrid headphones in the industry.

Because a patent registered by Apple more than 15 years ago gave clues that the company would enter this segment in the future. It took time and the result was more complex than registration, but the similarities between the document and the premium product were striking.

Also read: Will virtual reality surpass the traditional reality we live in?

Journalist Dan Moren of the Macworld website recalled this. Proportion of content published in 2008 on a defunct Apple fan page. He managed to retrieve the site using the Wayback Machine service and was surprised to see the similarities in the content.

patent image shows glasses with curved lenses that cover the wearer’s entire eye One of the most widely circulated jokes on social media at the time of the announcement is that it is very reminiscent of the Apple Vision Pro, including that it resembles the mascot of an industrialized food company in Brazil.

Such an image”Simulate the experience of being in a virtual environment with the help of smart sensors“. The equipment will be able to”detects head and even eye movementsadapt the video accordingly “Making the user feel like they are in a real place”.

While the patent still seems pretty abstract, as Apple’s adopted cameras and on-screen duplication of a person’s eyes don’t yet exist, the text is very similar to the experience the brand offered last year.

Patents are not always used in commercial products by companies, in most cases fairly a legal form of intellectual property protection. But in this case, Spades actually went further, even though the project remained dormant for so long.

What is the future of Apple Vision Pro?

Launched in selected markets for US$ 3,499 (more than R$ 17,100 in direct currency conversion), the Apple Vision Pro had timid sales by the company’s standards, leading to mixed opinions in the community.

Apart from the high price, reviews noted the lack of applications that truly take advantage of the full power of the equipment and the problems caused by the discomfort of using a heavy headset for a long time.

This month, the company began reducing headphone demonstration space in physical Apple Stores, specifically to make room for new Macs.

There are rumors that the company will launch the second generation headset with the new chip in 2025. A cheaper variant has also been considered, but its viability is considered more complex by Apple.