14 DAY TRIAL // A new report by Bloomberg states that Apple is working on multiple new AR features for its upcoming iPhone. Apparently, Tim Cook is “very serious about AR” and intends to bring the technology to the masses.
Apple has built a team to work on new hardware and software that would later result in AR features for the upcoming iPhone, anonymous internal sources stated for Bloomberg. The team is run by a former Dolby Laboratories executive and includes experts who worked on the Oculus and HoloLens virtual headsets released by Facebook and Microsoft.
The Cupertino company also bought several small firms that worked on AR hardware, 3D gaming, as well as virtual reality software.
Apple is working on a number of AR products
The team made up of several experts on augmented-reality won’t be working solely on features for the next iPhone, but also on a number of AR products. Apparently, Apple intends to develop a pair of digital spectacles that would wirelessly connect to an iPhone and stream videos or app content to the wearer.
Hundreds of engineers are working on the technology; some of them are solely focusing on AR features for the new iPhone. Apple intends to bring iPhone users the option to take a picture and then change the depth of the entire image or the depth of specific objects. A separate feature would let users isolate a certain object inside images and tilt it 180 degrees. Another AR tool would allow for objects and virtual effects to be placed inside images.
This report is in line with the analysis recently made by Ming-Chi Kuo, who predicted that the next iPhone would have an innovative camera augmented with an infrared projector and receiver. However, AR glasses would arrive further down the line, since it would mean that Apple must develop an entirely new product and integrate features that would require extensive testing.