When developing mixed reality glasses, several problems with Apple are revealed.

Rumors about Apple mixed reality glasses They’ve been around for years, though no one knows exactly what we’ll find when they arrive. In fact, its launch has been the subject of constant speculation, and the latest we know is that it will only be seen in 2023. However, some very interesting details of this initiative were made public in a recent report from Information.

The aforementioned media published a detailed account of how this project came about and various difficulties that arose over the years. The report reveals not only the technical difficulties faced by the development team, but also the apparent lack of stronger support from senior management at Cupertino.

According to journalist Wayne Ma, Apple’s plans to develop virtual and augmented reality glasses date back no earlier than 2016. By then, the Californian company already had a few prototypes, but nothing too elegant or polished to hit the market in the short term. The team’s idea was to get more funding by trying to convince the “big fish” of the board; among them, Al Goreformer Vice President of the United States and Bob Igerthen CEO of Disney.

The devices were not practical or aesthetically pleasing. Apparently, some of them were developed on the basis of the hardware XTS Vive, while others were more improvised and used Windows as their operating system. He even mentions a case where one of them was supported by a small crane because it was too heavy to carry on his head.

Having confirmed its claims and established that the technology is a fundamental part of Apple’s future, the company decided to continue exploring the area. However, the difficulties were just beginning.

Jony Ive didn’t want a VR headset

The divergence between Jony Ive, Apple’s head of design until 2019, and Mike Rockwell, head of the Virtual and Augmented Reality group, is not new. In 2020, a clash between them has already become known due to an important feature of the device; It’s about including Centre independent, which will be responsible for processing and wireless transmission of data to the mixed reality helmet. I strongly opposed this and forced a change of direction.

Information it also touches on the differences between Ive and Rockwell, although it targets a different situation. The original idea was develop headset a virtual reality, but the design team disagreed. “They believed that virtual reality alienates users from other people, isolating them from the outside world, makes users old-fashioned and has no practical application,” the report says.

To solve this problem, those responsible for the device suggested including external cameras that could capture what is happening around each user. Thus, people could interact with the virtual reality mode and the augmented reality mode. But what would really convince Quince and company was the promise to unite an external screen that transmits the eyes and facial expressions of those who wear glasses to the video; thus other people in the same room could see their reactions in real time.

It is clear that it is not known how far Apple has progressed in the development of this feature. It mentions that a very small group of mixed reality engineers were aware of the existence of such a screen.

Eradication and low priority

Another situation that affected the mixed reality glasses development team was your move from Apple headquarters. From mid-2017, the engineers will operate in an office building away from the Cupertino facilities.

The company’s intention was to “keep the team invisible” to the rest of Apple, but this would ultimately create a sense of exclusion, exacerbated by the company’s apparent low profile for the development. As Wayne Ma explains, this has shown up repeatedly, even when trying to set up contributions with other teams in the same company.

So, for example, in 2018, one of the designers of mixed reality glasses would contact Apple’s camera hardware team with a request to add the feature via firmware. This would optimize the speed at which the helmet cameras could capture images for projection onto the internal screen. But the answer would be because the project was not a prioritythey will have to wait until the launch of the iPhone XS.

That would be a blow, as the intention seems to have been to include such a feature in a demo in front of Apple’s top 100 employees.

But the report doesn’t stop there. It also indicates that while the group believes it is backed by Tim Cook, the company’s CEO did not actively participate in the development of the project, as Steve Jobs did with the first iPhone or other revolutionary products of the company.

“The absence of Cook’s scale leader to protect points […] at times it becomes harder to compete with other products like the Mac and iPhone in terms of staff and engineering resources,” he says.

Apple’s Mixed Reality Glasses Coming in 2023

As we said at the beginning, there is little certainty about Apple’s mixed reality glasses, despite a lot of rumors. The device is said to include two processors and that will have performance similar to that of the M1 Pro processorwhich was introduced with the most recent refresh of the MacBook Pro, however, the Californian firm has yet to address some very important shortcomings, especially in the area of ​​cooling.

It is assumed that headset Apple may debut only at the end of 2023. priced over $2,000. Meanwhile, some analysts are excited to see software-related news at the next WWDC.