Apple Could Be Getting Into the Camera Game In A Unique Way
Many have called on Apple to do more with cameras, and this will definitely be something new for them.
Apple is a company that likes to dip its hands into many different electronic markets. We all, of course, know about their smartphone empire, their computers, iPods, iPads, headphones, and even their much-speculated electric car. But what about cameras and other items that use them? Apple has been making waves with their iPhone cameras for sure, but will they ever break into another market that utilizes cameras? The answer to that is yes, apparently. News of an augmented reality headset has been floating around for a little while now. While it might not be a camera announcement we have been looking for, it’s still pretty cool. Let’s talk about this after the break.
A post on Image Sensor World describes a new augmented reality headset that Apple is apparently working on. Now, augmented reality shouldn’t be confused with virtual reality. Virtual reality puts you into a total virtual space. Augmented reality brings objects that you can see and manipulate through a headset into your real surroundings. Microsoft has a headset like this. It’s called the HoloLens, and while the talk was big about it for a while, it never made it into the consumer space. So, will Apple be able to make it work instead? Well, let’s take a look at what might be coming before we decide.
What Makes This Apple AR Device Special?
So, how is will this Apple augmented reality device function? Well, it will have a whopping 15 cameras embedded in it. This is a lot more than most consumer-based VR and AR headsets. The Oculus Quest 2, for instance, has just four cameras.
Eight of the cameras in the Apple AR headset will enable pass-thru video so that you can see your real surroundings in the headset. The screens will supposedly be MicroOLED displays. Six more cameras will be used to feed innovative biometrics to the headset. This sounds pretty intrusive, but it could be an AI-based system that can detect other human faces and eyes, animals, or other object recognition technology. Perhaps it will be used for security too. There will also be one more camera that will be used for environmental detection. As you can see, the Apple AR headset will be loaded with optics and sensors. Whether or not we will see this tech remains to be seen. An AR headset definitely sounds great. We can’t help but wonder if some of this tech can be used in other applications.
What Does This Tech Mean For Apple’s Future
We know that Apple is hard at work trying to create the best mobile photography experience out there. Do they offer the best mobile photography experience? Well, that’s up for debate and is for you to decide. What we can glean from this, though, is that Apple seems to be fully committed to working on camera technology on multiple fronts. What’s really exciting about this AR tech are the biometric cameras.
If this AI technology works and can detect and track objects without any user input, this would be game-changing. Imagine having AI this powerful in your smartphone camera. I’m even sure there would be a market for this tech to be used in traditional cameras. So far, you have to tell a camera what it’s looking at, and then it will track. Having a dedicated sensor built into a camera that can automatically detect exactly what it’s looking at and that can use deep-learning to further expand its capabilities would be great. We will apparently see this technology from Apple in 2022. What do you think about a possible AR headset and deep learning tech from Apple? Let us know in the comment section below.