I wish you’re having a wonderful Sunday. Here you are my recap of the most interesting XR news of the week!
Top news of the week
Apple has killed its AR glasses project… maybe
A piece of unexpected news has shaken the XR communities this week: according to a report on Digitimes Taiwan, Apple has abandoned its AR/VR glasses project and all the members of the team have been re-allocated in other teams. This would have happened on May 2019, in the same period when Apple’s senior manager of prototype development Avi Bar-Zeev left the company. The reason for such a decision would be that was impossible to create a glass that could be thin enough and that could contain all the desired technology (e.g. 5G).
If the report were true, this would mean that Apple doesn’t believe in AR anymore and this would be terrible news for all the immersive realities ecosystem.
But before anyone starts saying that “AR is dead”, we should sit down and think about a bit. Apple is clearly committed in augmented reality, and the recent release of ARKit 3 proves that. Tim Cook continues saying that AR is the future and this is another proof of their commitment. All the other major companies (Samsung, Huawei, etc…) are working on AR and Apple for sure can’t stop experimenting with if it doesn’t want to miss the next communication platform as Microsoft did with Windows Phone. And Robert Scoble confirms that there are still lots of people working in AR at Apple (and there are also many open job positions). The same Scoble reminds us that before the iPhone was launched, there was a similar rumor about the iPhone project being abandoned.
So, what’s happened? Usually, rumors have always some true foundations, so most likely these are things that could be happened:
- Apple is working on various AR/VR glasses designs and one of them proved to be a failure, so THAT only team working on only that version has been dismantled (this is the theory of Robert Scoble);
- Apple is switching from one design to the other, like from pass-through to screen-through MR and this required reorganization of the resources (theory of Charlie Fink);
- Apple is just having a delay: they are waiting for the technology to be ready to create a device that is thin and fashionable enough, a device that is ready for consumers;
- Apple is just reorganizing all the internal teams after the departures of Bar-Zeev, Ive and other key figures;
- Apple is reorganizing its suppliers (especially the Chinese ones) to take in count the problems after the trade wars.
So, don’t panic. AR is still alive, Apple will still release its AR glasses. Probably not this year, but next one or in 2021… but it will happen.
More info (News on VentureBeat)
More info (News on Road To VR)
More info (Article by Robert Scoble with its point of view)
More info (Article by Fink & Mikenseer with their point of view)
Other relevant news
Oculus is working on 2nd gen VR
Mark Zuckerberg told that Oculus Quest closed the first generation of VR and so Oculus is now working on its second generation. Oculus has already pre-announced great things for Oculus Connect 6 (involving AR and VR) and for sure that event will be the occasion to let us understand what is this new VR that Oculus will give us.
This week, Jon Lax, a Facebook executive, tweeted that “Quest is the end of our first chapter of VR. What’s next is where things really get interesting”. We don’t know what he means, but for sure he wanted to raise the hype for OC6. And he’s doing that pretty well since all communities are intrigued by this sentence. But on the other side, as Jeri Ellsworth of Tilt Five points out, this can lead to the Osborne Effect, that is: there will be people not buying the Rift S or the Quest because they know that Oculus will release something better.
We don’t know what Oculus will present, but we have some hints. A new job listing points out to the fact that Oculus is planning to integrate eye tracking in its next devices. And strangely, Upload VR has published this week an old video of Abrash showcasing an experiment to create in VR an environment that has the same shape of the real environment (including the real props) the user is in. This may mean nothing, but since Upload is close to Oculus and that video is completely out of context… the conspiracy theorist that is in me thinks that Oculus will show something that blends the real and the virtual.
And about content… what if I told you that Oculus will probably take Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell to VR? :O
More info (Jon Lax’s quote)
More info (Osborne Effect)
More info (Eye tracking job listing)
More info (Oculus mixing real and virtual)
More info (Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell)
Minecraft Earth is coming in private beta
Minecraft Earth is, in my opinion, the game having the potential to disrupt the AR market in a similar way to what Pokemon Go did some years ago. And after having seen the new video announcing the beta, I am even more convinced of it.
Microsoft has released this week a new video showing how the game will work. The game will tie you to play it every day so that you can gain blocks with which you will be able to create your virtual stuff. After you have enough blocks, you can create your buildings on a planar surface (like with many ARCore or ARKit games) alone or with your friends. And when you’re ready, you can also see your creations in real-world-scale wherever you want. And you can also enter them, as if they were your house! That’s amazing: geolocation, real/virtual blending, multiplayer and a strong brand like Minecraft only in one game!
Microsoft is launching in two weeks a private beta for iOS users. It is coming also for Android but after some time. Interesting users may apply on a dedicated website. I can’t wait to read the feedback from the first real users!
Some updates on VR content
This week we had various updates on VR content, that I want to tell you:
- Defector, one of the most awaited exclusive games for Oculus Rift has been released. I’m sorry to say that reviews have been pretty mild;
- We will know the release date of Stormland at OC6, but probably it will be released during the Holidays of 2019;
- CCP Games, the studio that abandoned VR, has actually updated its game Sparc. In an interview with Upload, they confirmed they are still convinced that VR is the future of gaming… it’s just that the market is not profitable at this moment;
- Road To VR has published a long gameplay video of Lone Echo II;
- Until You Fall has been judged as one of the games with the best melée system out there;
- We have some new info on “A Kites tale”, the short VR film that Disney will present at SIGGRAPH;
More info (Defector review)
More info (Stormland release window)
More info (CCP Games updates Sparc)
More info (CCP Games on VR)
More info (Lone Echo II gameplay)
More info (Until You Fall)
More info (A Kites Tale)
Elon Musk will detail Neuralink soon
After some years of silence, Elon Musk will give us an update of Neuralink on July, 18th 2019. Some people will be invited at the event, while all the others will be able to see the livestream video after the event itself.
Neuralink is the mysterious startup about Brain Computer Interfaces that Elon Musk has set up to revolutionize the BCI sector with the short term goal to help disabled people and the long term goal of mixing our brain with artificial intelligence. If you want to discover more on BCI and on Neuralink goals, you can read this long post of mine on the topic.
I am incredibly intrigued. Can’t wait to discover more.
News worth a mention
The debate on the Valve Index continues
As I’ve highlighted last week, now that the Index is in the wild, people are discovering its little problems. One is that the device becomes warm while using it and during summer, this is not a good thing. That’s why people are hacking it adding fans so that to stay fresh while using it! To be fair, it is not the only device being hacked with fans: some Redditors have hacked the Rift S as well, and for Vive there is the Vive ‘n Chill addon.
But what sparks the biggest debates are the controllers, with the thumbsticks that are not perfect and don’t click in all directions. People have also not appreciated that Valve has not admitted the error and claimed that this is by design. And regarding the controllers in general, the reviews are mixed, in the sense that some people are not sure that they are worth all that money when in the end they result just being an evolution of Oculus Touch. Everyone agrees that they are great controllers, but not everyone agrees on the fact that they are truly revolutionary.
In all of this, someone has created the design for a Leap Motion mount for the Index that exploits the frunk.
More info (Valve Index fans mod)
More info (Rift S fans mod)
More info (Rant on the thumbsticks of the Index)
More info (A review of Index controllers)
More info (Irony on Knuckles’s thumbsticks)
More info (Leap Motion mount for Index)
Companies are studying foveated rendering for AR glasses
NVIDIA is going to showcase at SIGGRAPH a technology it has developed to implement foveated rendering in augmented reality glasses. It reminds me a bit of Varjo, but for AR. Very interesting.
How to use Vive Wireless Adapter with a laptop
The great VR innovator Steven Sato has explained everyone in a blog post how to use the Vive Wireless Adapter with a laptop computer. It requires a bit of hacking and creativity, but it works!
Steam is releasing Steam Labs
Every day lots of games get released on Steam and so for gamers it is hard to find a new interesting game in this sea of new released games. That’s why Steam is going to experiment with various technologies to help players in discovering new content that is relevant for them. This set of experiment is called Steam Labs and will roll out soon.
HTC has released some interesting statistics on the VR market
Every year, HTC conducts a big survey on the Chinese VR market and shares the results with the community. These stats contain very interesting data, like the trends of VR, the differences between the VR tastes of males and females and the differences between US and Chinese users. Yes, there are some biased data telling that HTC is the best brand ever… but I think that is part of the game 🙂
MediView lets surgeons see the internal parts of patients in AR
This week, Robert Scoble has highlighted how the most interesting medical XR startup that he has seen in these years is MediView, a company that lets surgeons see in augmented reality the organs, bones and veins of a patient while performing a surgery. After having watched a video, I confirm that this company looks impressive.
Hands-on with HaptX gloves
My latest article has been a long deep-dive on Dexmo gloves. Curiously, at the same time, TESTED has published a hands-on with HaptX gloves, that are the main competitors of Dexmo.
The video is overly interesting and if you pair it with my article, you can see the pros and cons of both solutions. HaptX can convey better haptics, while Dexmo better force-feedback and a lighter form factor.
Both solutions are very cool, but they are also expensive and can’t offer a sensation of haptics that is identical to reality. It is still gen 1 of haptics, so it is normal.
5G is coming to Italy
As an Italian, let me say that I’m proud to discover that we’re getting 5G as well, and my city, Turin, is one of the first ones that will get it. By 2021, 120 cities (22% of population) will be covered by 5G. But the telco companies do not plan to offer a flat plan for it.
A good story for Reddit
A disabled guy (missing one hand) showed on reddit how he plays with Rift S controllers and in the comments people started organizing to design and 3D print for him a prosthetic addon that he can use to play in VR! This story made me restore my faith in humanity…
Some XR fun
A good use of Valve Index’s frunk
The generalist press has a confused idea of the Quest…
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Happy VR 😉
(Header image by Apple)