Apple WWDC 2023: Apple Vision Pro is an AR/VR headset that puts everything in a spatial space

The future is here

Khumail Thakur 6 Jun 2023 12:47 AM

Think of any Apple software or apps, and now think of it floating inside your room. That’s the power of Apple’s Vision Pro AR/VR headset. It’s taking everything Apple has to offer and slapping it into your reality. Got a movie to watch? Wear the Apple Vision Pro and extend the movie screen bigger than 100 inches. Too simple? How about you stare at your MacBook and the entire display floats up and gets bigger? Yup, that’s possible. You can extend and add more screens as you like and switch just by moving your eyes or head. You can add a virtual keyboard and trackpad as well. 

How do you control all this? Well, your hands of course. Just as Steve Jobs booted the stylus, Apple had now booted all controllers that all AR/VR headsets use. There are cameras and sensors that register your hand gestures, head movements and eye movement. There’s also a dial (like the Apple Watch), along with pinch and grab gestures to scale and move content. The cameras on the headset can also capture videos and photos in real-time. 

Apple has also slapped a display on the front which shows your eyes if someone walks into the room so it feels like they’re looking at you while talking to you. If they enter your line of sight, the Apple Vision Pro will include them in the space even if you’ve blacked out the real-time background (your living room). For moments when you really want to zone out, you can change the entire space to fit what you like. Maybe a full black background to focus on the window playing a movie, or a mountain view while you work or attending work conference calls. Most of the Apple apps and games will also work on the vision OS which is the name of the dedicated OS for the Apple Vision Pro. 

All of this runs on the M2 chip along with an all-new R1 chip which is there to manage all the real-time information from the 12 cameras, 6 microphones and 5 sensors. The Apple Vision Pro also authenticates your headset using Optic ID. Optic ID is essentially an iris recognition system which works like Face ID or Touch ID. 

The Apple Vision Pro headset will be available early next year for $3499 and yes, it’s a dedicated headset which has its own pocketable battery pack to sap juice.