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Alleged Apple Trademarks Point to ‘Reality’ Branding for Long-rumored Mixed Reality Headset

From roadtovr

Multiple trademark filings spotted by Bloomberg over the weekend support the notion that Apple’s long-rumored mixed reality headset will be running under the ‘Reality’ naming scheme.

Trademark applications were filed earlier this month in the US, EU, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica and Uruguay for three names: Reality One, Reality Pro, and Reality Processor, Bloomberg reports.

The first two may differentiate classes of the rumored MR headset, much like iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro, while ‘Reality Processor’ could be the platform’s SoC. The report maintains Apple may be using a M2 SoC with 16 GB of memory.

Furthermore, Bloomberg reports Apple’s MR headset will focus on VR versions of apps like Maps and FaceTime, different social apps, and media apps for “sports and movies in VR and gaming.” The trademarks also include a “health-related functions” feature.

None of the applications are registered to Apple by name—many were filed by ‘Immersive Health Solutions’—however the company typically uses shell corporations and small law firms across the globe to obfuscate its connection to forthcoming products. At the time of this writing are still marked as “pending”.

A trademark filed earlier this year which was attributed to Apple seemingly staked its claim to the name ‘realityOS’, or what could be the company’s mixed reality operating system. The trademark was initially filed just two months before ‘realityOS’ began showing up in Apple source code.

As per usual, Apple hasn’t said anything official or released any mention of its forthcoming MR headset from its black box headquarters in Cupertino. What we do know is based on reports, so take the following information with a grain of salt.

Apple’s first headset, which like Meta’s Project Cambria (possibly named Quest Pro), is said to feature VR displays and color passthrough cameras which will allow it to do augmented reality tasks—i.e. making it a mixed reality headset. Here’s what we (think) we know about Apple’s MR headset, codenamed N301.

Follow-up devices are said to include a headset codenamed N602, and a proper pair of AR glasses codenamed N421. Bloomberg maintains these devices may arrive sometime later this decade.

Ming-Chi Kuo: Apple Likely to Release Mixed Reality Headset in January 2023

From roadtovr

Industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, a respected figure in all things Apple supply chain leaks, says the Cupertino tech giant is likely preparing to launch its long-rumored mixed reality headset early next year.

In a Medium post, Kuo outlines a few key points based on how he gathers the industry is headed.

In short, Kuo posits that Meta is slowing down investment in VR hardware due to looming economic recession, but this will provide others opportunity to play catchup as market share shifts away from Meta to companies such as Sony, Valve, Pico, and HTC. It’s not VR, its Meta’s core business that’s taking a hit.

Kuo says there’s still a “vast” potential demand for VR headsets in China which could be filled by companies with ready access to the Chinese market, such as ByteDance subsidiary Pico Interactive and Taiwan’s HTC.

Apple is also tapped to fill growing demand. Codenamed N301, Apple’s MR headset will “likely release in January 2023,” Kuo maintains, and is set to “favor the continued rapid growth of the headset sector,” adding that it’s “the most complicated product Apple has ever designed.”

“Although Apple has repeatedly reiterated its focus on AR, I believe Apple AR/MR supporting video see-thru could also offer an excellent immersive experience,” Kuo says. “Therefore, the launch of Apple AR/MR will further boost the demand for immersive gaming/multimedia entertainment.”

N301 is said to combine VR displays with passthrough cameras for both VR and AR applications. Check out the roundup below for all of the rumors surrounding Apple’s MR headset:

What We (think we) Know About N301 Mixed Reality Headset

Apple Quietly Released One of The Most Impressive AR Room-mapping Tools

From roadtovr

Apple has barely mentioned augmented or virtual reality in its big keynotes lately, however at WWDC 2022 earlier this month, the company quietly released probably one of the best 3D room-mapping tools for mobile AR yet.

Called RoomPlan, the ARKit Swift API uses the camera and LiDAR scanner on recent iPhones and iPads to create a 3D floor plan of a room, including key characteristics such as dimensions and types of furniture.

It’s not for consumers (yet) though. Apple says it’s aiming to appeal to professionals like architecture and interior designers for conceptual exploration and planning, as well as developers of real estate, e-commerce, or hospitality apps; developers can integrate RoomPlan directly into their AR-capable apps.

When it was released earlier this month, Jonathan Stephens, Chief Evangelist at spatial computing company EveryPoint, took RoomPlan for a test drive to see what it could do. The results are pretty surprising.

RoomPlan seems to be able to deal with a number of traditionally difficult situations, including the mirror seen above, but also messy spaces, open and closed doors, windows, and generally complex architecture. Still, Stephens’ house isn’t just a bunch of cube-shaped rooms, so there’s a few bits that just didn’t match up.

Vaulted ceilings, wall openings, multifloor areas like you might find in foyers were all a bit too difficult for RoomPlan to correctly digest. Although not perfect, it seems to at least autocorrect to some degree based on some assumptions of how things might best fit together.

RoomPlan isn’t just for app integrations though. Apple says it outputs in USD or USDZ file formats which include dimensions of each component recognized in the room, such as walls or cabinets, as well as the type of furniture detected.

If you’re looking to finetune the scan, dimensions and placement of each individual components can be adjusted when exported into various USDZ-compatible tools, such as Cinema 4D, Shapr3D, or AutoCAD, Apple says.

We’re still no closer to learning when the company plans to release its rumored mixed reality headset or its full-fledged AR glasses, however either AR or MR headset would need extremely robust space-mapping capabilities. Seeing Apple make these sorts of strides using its existent platforms certainly shows they’re on the right track.

If you haven’t been following along with the Apple rumor mill, check out some of the links below regarding the company’s mixed reality headset, codenamed N301:

What We (think we) Know About N301 Mixed Reality Headset

A special thanks to Hrafn Thorisson for pointing us to the news!

Report: Apple Recruits Hollywood Directors For VR/AR Headset

From vrscout

Rumor has it the company may also be working on VR FaceTime.

According to The New York Times, Apple is enlisting the help of the Hollywood elite to help bolster its catalog of immersive content for its long-rumored VR/AR headset. This will supposedly include mysterious video content from celebrated director Jon Favreau (The Lion King, Ironman, The Mandalorian).

Citing three people close to the project, the publication claims that Favreau is developing original content for the mixed reality device based on Apple TV+’s new “documentary” series, Prehistoric Planet, for which Favreau serves as executive producer. According to sources, this mixed reality content will be available next year when Apple’s VR/AR headset launches sometime in 2023.

Credit: John Salangsang / Shutterstock

While Apple has yet to confirm or deny these reports, it’s worth noting that Favreau has a history of using immersive technology as part of his filmmaking process. Back in 2019, we talked about how the star director used VR technology to create and preview virtual environments for his 2019 remake of The Lion King. That being said, it would make sense for Apple to seek the help of Favreau in developing immersive content.

According to Mark Gurman, Bloomberg’s official Apple reporter, the company’s VR/AR headset and RealityOS platform is just the tip of the metaphorical iceberg. In addition to the long-rumored hardware, Gurman claims that the company is also working on VR integration for FaceTime, Apple Maps, and a variety of other apps.

Director Jon Favreau and his team immersed within their virtual set. / Credit: Wired

“While third-party apps are a key ingredient of this project, Apple is also planning a slew of its own apps,” says Gurman in his report. “That includes a VR version of FaceTime that can scan a person’s face to replicate their movements in a Memoji, a new VR version of Maps, and rOS variants of core Apple apps like Notes and Calendar. Also in the works is a way for the headset to extend a Mac’s display, bringing it into 3D.”

This past week rumors began circulating about the potential reveal of Apple’s combination VR/AR headset and “Reality Operating System” during the company’s annual WWDC developer conference. Unfortunately, the event came and went with no mention of VR or AR, let alone the highly-anticipated mixed reality device. That said, we did learn about a new MacBook Air as well as several exciting software updates for a variety of iOS devices.

Here’s hoping we learn more about Apple’s VR/AR device in the coming months.

Apple’s iPhone Will Soon Scan Your Ear to Solve a Big Problem with Spatial Audio

From roadtovr

Today during Apple’s WWDC 2022 keynote, the company announced that iOS 16 will allow users of modern iPhones to scan the shape of their ear to create more accurate spatial audio. Likely implemented as an HRTF, creating custom HRTFs for consumers was once impractical due to the need for sophisticated equipment, but advances in computer vision are making the technology much more accessible.

When it comes to digital spatial audio, there’s a limit to how accurate the sense of ‘position’ or ‘3D’ the audio can be without taking into account the unique shape of the user’s head and ears.

Because everybody has a uniquely shaped head, and especially ears, elements of incoming sound from the real world bounce off your head and into your ears in different and very subtle ways. For instance, when a sound is behind you, the precise geometry of the folds in your ear reflect sound from that angle in a unique way. And when you hear sound coming to your ear in that particular way, you’re attuned to understand that the source of the sound is behind you.

To create a highly accurate sense of digital spatial audio, you need a model which accounts for these factors, such that the audio is mixed with the correct cues that are created by the unique shape of your head and ears.

Audiologists have described this phenomena mathematically in a model known as a Head-related Transfer Function (also known as an HRTF). Using an HRTF, digital audio can be modified to replicate the spatial audio cues that are unique to an individual’s ear.

So while the math is well studied and the technology to apply an HRTF in real-time is readily available today, there’s still one big problem: every person needs their own custom HRTF. This involves accurately measuring each ear of each person, which isn’t easy without specialized equipment.

But now Apple says it will make use of advanced sensors in its latest iPhones to allow anyone to scan their head and ears, and create a custom spatial audio profile from that data.

Apple isn’t the first company to offer custom HRTFs based on a computer-vision model of the ear, but having it built into iOS will certainly make the technology much more widespread than it ever has been.

During the WWDC 2022 keynote, Apple announced the feature as part of the forthcoming iOS 16 update which is due out later this year. It will work on iPhones with the TrueDepth camera system, which includes the iPhone 10 and beyond.

But just having an accurate model of the ear isn’t enough. Apple will need to have developed an automated process to simulate the way that real sound would interact with the unique geometry of the ear. The company hasn’t specifically said this will be based on an HRTF implementation, but it seems highly likely as it’s a known quantity in the spatial audio field.

Ultimately this should result in more accurate digital spatial audio on iPhones (and very likely future Apple XR headsets). That means that a sound 10 feet from your left ear will sound more like it should at that distance, making it easier to differentiate between a sound 2 feet from your left ear, for instance.

This will pair well with the existing spatial audio capabilities of Apple products; especially when used with AirPods which can track the movement of your head for a head-tracked spatial audio experience. Apple’s iOS and MacOS both support spatial audio out of the box, which is capable of taking standard audio and making it sound as if it’s coming from speakers in your room (instead of in your head), and accurately playing back sound that’s specially authored for spatial audio, such as Dolby Atmos tracks on Apple Music.

And there’s another potential upside to this feature to. If Apple makes it possible for users to download their own custom HRTF profile, they may be able to take it and use it on other devices (like on a VR headset for instance).