Why is AR so hard? Apple Delaying AR Glasses

An important news came out a few hours back, reported by Bloomberg, where Apple is actually delaying the AR glasses. I’m going to leave the link to the news in the shoutout and I’m going to add a little bit of comments here because this is highly tied to the development of the industry, as I also explained in previous episodes. But I want to detail a little bit what I mean here.

It seems that Apple is actually delaying the production and release of our glasses, which was something that probably was planned for at least for next year. And instead it seems that most probably Apple is going forward with the plan to actually release a mixed reality headset, which is a sort of hybrid between VR and AR, to understand that a mixed reality headset is something that you’re going to use in a controlled environment. So for instance, you’re still going to use it […] in a very specific context, not in a real world scenario. Like for instance, you work through the street, you’re not going to be wearing this mixed reality headset. You’re going to be wearing it, let’s say, in your office, like a productivity tool where you’re going to have an interface where you can have all your productivity apps and therefore use it as a way to enhance your productivity, for instance as a gaming console where you can move and do many more interactions.

So that’s what mixed reality headset is going to be for. According to the news, Apple is going to release this mixed reality ad set at a high price point, most probably at around $3,000. So it’s going to be quite expensive. But we know that when Apple does something, […] it extremely well. So it may be that if it is a tool that can be used for business productivity.

So let’s say you can replicate your office within this mixed reality set headset, which is something that I had to do with the Osulus, but honestly, it didn’t stick with me. So after a few days I actually left it on my desk. So if Apple is actually successful in this application, it may be already good enough to have a first traction. The interesting thing is AR seems to be delayed right now for technical issues, meaning that the technical development of AR headsets so the augmented reality smart glasses seems way more complex than […] they thought it would be. […] We can imagine why, for instance, we can imagine that of course, it’s very hard to pack into […] very small device like smart glasses, […] something that can process real world experiences.

And also it’s very hard to make something extremely safe at scale, meaning that you put it in the hands of consumers and consumers will be able […] to actually use it on a regular basis, for instance, across as they go by through their daily lives. And the interesting thing is, of course, […] it’s very hard to understand now what is going to be evolution. On the other side, Apple is going in a hybrid direction where he’s going to release this mixed reality set which might be a way to actually test and validate the market from a business perspective. Because if the price point is going to be $3,000, then it means that only business people might afford it. It’s not going to be for consumer application, but it’s going to be a good way for Apple to […] understand if it makes sense.

Another key thing here is also to understand is also the fact that these devices will need to be extremely good in being able to actually process the user data. […] Goodbye. Because a lot of this information will need to be contextualized in order for the device for the smart glasses to make sense. So, as I did in previous episodes, imagine the case of a person working through a real physical store and with the smart glasses this can enhance the experience. But to enhance the experience, these glasses needs also the references of this user therefore needs to access the data on the device.

So there are also again safety concerns, privacy concerns, all those things that […] to work on it might take a long time. […] So why is this news relevant for the AI perspective? As I highlighted in previous episodes, I believe that AR is the perfect physical interface for AI simply because again, […] if you think about it, […] each platform that we had moved from […] digital and physical platform with PC and then mobile and then going forward […] we see what platform we’re going to have. The classic example of Apple is actually the combination of […] hardware through the iPhone, software through the iOS […] system, operating system and then marketplace through the App Store. And the combination of those has created a business ecosystem and a business platform.

So if you think about it in terms of AR, of course it’s interesting always to look at a way to interface the AI. So those general purpose engines that are able to people like the into smart devices so that they can simulate a virtual world or like freezance enhanced real world experiences or being able to those general purpose engines on the one side process […] the movements of the person who is wearing those glasses. So reading the context around and then on the other side forecasting. So giving a projection of an experienced based on the context around and this needs to be done in real time. So that’s why my thinking is of course if you ask me what’s the most important piece of the puzzle to make those AR glasses viable.

Of course safety and privacy are key concerns. But on the other side, from a […]technological standpoint, the perfect interface seems to be AI. So artificial intelligence through the plug of those general purpose engines. So imagine that you have a sort of assistant which can be event theory is powered by […]current evolutions of large generative models like stable diffusion of charge EPT or a combination of the two, and you get an empowered Siri who is actually the general interface through which you actually can command the Airglasses to do anything. And then on the other side you’re going to get sub engines or like more verticalized engines that will be able to interface with the general purpose engines to actually do various stuff. 

For instance, let’s say Siri micro and ecommerce engine that is able to actually drive you through automatically an experience as you go shopping. Or for instance, another engine that might drive you through another experience as you go traveling. So […]that’s the way I see this developing. Of course, as you can imagine, AR is quite complex. It seems that Apple has been working on it for the last seven years […]in cigarette, which is something that Apple has always done. 

So it seems to be a very hard problem and it may be delayed at the release of smart glasses. We’ll see. I think that AI really makes it possible for AR to become relevant. And I think other players will try to launch something relevant and those AR devices will be launched as very vertical […]niche product. For instance, some companies already shown the application of air glasses for translation. 

So initially those devices might be launched first as accessibility tools, so tools for people with disability to actually enhance and enable their experiences. So imagine the case of air glasses that enable people that cannot hear to actually […]see the transcription in real time on the glasses. Or for instance, even as something that can be used in the business world. There’s a translation tool for employees or like entrepreneurs. We see. 

So my thinking is this will still happen in the next couple of years, but it might happen as a niche product where we see very specific use cases from which this can be expanded. And again, I still believe that the interface so interfacing AI and AR is really a potential next development of a huge business platform and ecosystem.