Apple Unveils Vision Pro: A Paradigm Shift in AR/VR with Integrated AI

0:00Apple has just announced Apple Vision Pro, which is the highly anticipated VR headset and AR headset out of Apple. Now, this is something that has been in the works for, I believe, seven years. We've been hearing rumors about this for a long time, and today they finally made the announcement. And so today on the podcast, we're going to talk about what is going on with the Apple Vision Pro, what it is, what it is capable of, contrasting this. I'm going to bring a little bit of perspective as someone that has previously designed AR and VR applications for my previous company, SelfPause, which is an AI life coach and wellness company.

0:33And we're going to talk about what it's going to take for this to be successful, how they're integrating artificial intelligence into this and how I believe artificial intelligence is going to continue to be integrated into this in the future. So without further ado, let's dive into it. First off, I want to go over some of the basics that are happening currently on this. So the first thing is I've seen they have a very powerful AI integration with this where they want, they're developing something called, I think it's AI faces. And essentially what it does is they've trained a machine learning model off of thousands and thousands of faces off of a diverse background and when you put this VR headset on it's going to be able to scan your face because this thing has tons and tons of high definition cameras and a lot of really powerful computational chips inside of it it will be able to scan your face and make essentially an AI version of your face now this isn't something super far off from what we're seeing with you know like lensa for example where it allows you to upload a bunch of pictures of yourself and then it can create like you know, new pictures of you.

1:33This is like a whole new level though, right? Apple had their avatars, but now they have like an actual AI 3D face, which, which is like essentially kind of cloning what your face looks like. And the reason that they have this integrated is for a couple of their different features. But one of those being they would like it so that when someone looks at you wearing this thing, the idea of it being, you know, there's so there's virtual reality and augmented reality and augmented reality means that in addition to, you know, something like Meta's Oculus or MetaQuest, I guess, you can only see kind of like what is in the camera lens.

2:08You don't see the outside world. With this, they have a glass lens that allows you and a lot of cameras that allows you to see everything that is happening around you. And the idea behind that is that, well, I guess it's mostly just the cameras that are projecting, that are looking at everything around you, projecting it inside. But the idea with that is that there's a glass lens on the outside that will actually display your eyes and your face based off this kind of AI facial recognition so if you look at someone wearing this it's no longer just kind of looking at someone wearing this like you know piece of plastic on their face kind of like this like eye mask thing that you used to see which is more of a traditional look with the meta quest now all of a sudden on that glass is going to be displayed what looks like your eyes and they use a lot of artificial intelligence and machine learning to make this look very much like you're just kind of seeing through it to their face behind and so you can see where their eyes are you can make eye contact with someone it's it's quite an intuitive process there so i think that's very interesting one of the big questions a lot of people have asked about this is like are you know developers going to have to go and create a whole new apps on an entire new ecosystem and platform is this going to be a lot of development is this going to be hard for them to get some mass adoption so one thing that i do think is pretty powerful is that they have directly partnered with unity so unity apps will be able to run on the new vision os operating system and on this headset you're going to be able to get pre-existing really powerful unity apps that have been developed and i think this is going to be really cool i think that we're going to start seeing similar to apple and ipad where a lot of apps are integrating ai features and tools right you have lensa that's really taken off you even have chat gpt that has their own ios app now all of those apps will be integrated onto this new platform.

3:50And I think this is going to take this to a whole new level where this device is going to be worn in new ways and used on new projects that are going to all of a sudden help us to have AI that much closer. So a lot of people or some of the pre-developed apps that Apple was announcing were tools that allowed you to, you know, look over blueprints on the job in kind of like augmented reality right there in front of you to work on PowerPoint presentations, you know, right in front of you, you know, so you're wearing this thing standing up in your kitchen table, for example, and all of a sudden all around you are these screens where you can very interactively work on whatever your work projects are.

4:27And I kind of think of the fact that, so this also is very integrated. They've, they already have this out of the box is going to be working with Microsoft office and teams. So for example, Microsoft, which right now is integrating AI into virtually all of their office suite, all of their tools, you're now going to be able to use all of those AI products directly on this headset. So it's like it's because it's integrating with so much software and technology that is already out there and integrating AI, it's it's going to be so much more accessible, in my opinion. And so I see this as being something really cool.

4:59I mean, personally, I imagine this would be awesome if I was, you know, if I went out for a hike, and I'm on top of the mountain, and I'm like trying to work on some design projects. So I sit there and I look around at, you know, this like nice view, and it gives me some inspiration for some design concepts I'm working on with for something. I know that sounds, you know, kind of funny or crazy, but like to me that legitimately would help inspire me to be more creative. And so I think we're going to see, I think we're going to see a massive transformation where this actually can help with creativity, with human creativity and being out in, you know, nature or wherever inspires you, if that's a rock climbing gym or wherever that is, music studio, like you can be in locations where previously you could not work.

5:40And this kind of replaces having a desk full of monitors where, you know, right now I'd like to have, you know, five or six monitors all in front of me working on different projects and different things. Now on this new OS, you take one device anywhere with you, put it on and instantly you have all of those screens laid out in front of you. I think something really powerful with this entire operating system and with this new product is, well, okay, I'll do a pro and a con. Number one, the con is they have a wire that is attached from the headset and it goes into maybe your pocket or somewhere else that attaches to a battery bank so the way that they wanted to make this thing look and how light they wanted it to be and cool whatever uh did not allow for it to have a lot of battery um power in it and so consequently they had to have an external battery in my opinion that's a pretty big negative and i i don't see it a very far off future where they're able to kind of get that i don't see this as unrealistic that eventually they're going to be able to get that compacted, fit down and right inside the headset.

6:36So you're not going to have kind of a ridiculous wire hanging off of you. Like, you know, the MetaQuest does not have that wire hanging off of you. In the past, VR headsets, you know, used to have to be plugged into a computer that did all the processing and that wire was annoying. I remember way back in the day using those. So I don't think that this is that's going to last forever. But I will say that is the con. But the pro that they've traded that for is that there are no controllers. So with like the MetaQuest, for example, you have a controller in each hand, you have to use those, that those are essentially identify where your hands are.

7:06And you use those to, you know, click on things and point and do different things. So now with this new, there's so many different sensors, they have LiDAR sensors, literally built into this thing. And I think the, I think the perk of this is that it's so first off, the price point, it starts at about$3 ,500 is expected to come out early next year. And it's a little bit more definitely a lot more expensive right you could get like a cheap um meta headset for 300 on ebay probably and some of these things and they're starting at i think like 600 bucks brand new and um you know they have their more expensive one is like two grand so this thing is definitely more money right this is 3500 you're paying the apple premium price but it has so much more packed into it and so i do believe the experience is so much better and perhaps literally justifies the price because of the experience that you're getting.

7:58It's not like someone be, you know, if you're a serious worker that really needed a VR headset for serious use cases, I don't think this is going to be a question anymore of do I want the MetaQuest Pro or this? Like this has just so much more to it. So they've completely eliminated the need for those hand controllers that Meta has. And instead, they just have cameras and LiDAR that can detect where your hands are. You can tap to click on things. You can pinch to zoom in and zoom out and all sorts of hand motions now essentially are how you control this thing. So it's going to be very, very powerful.

8:29I saw some really powerful use cases where also I think it's impressive. They filed over 5 ,000 patents while making this thing. So it's really got a lot of cutting edge brand new technology in it. I saw some really cool use cases where, for example, someone was wearing one standing up and they're giving a presentation. So they had, you know, the people they're giving a presentation to kind of on one panel in front of them and on the other panel they had their PowerPoint presentation that they were able to kind of toggle through so I think we're going to see a lot of really cool use cases one very interesting product they announced that I was impressed by was 3D video capture where essentially if you've seen 3D videos or 3D images before they take into account the entire environment around you and with this new Apple OS 3D video you're able to like let's say you were at a birthday party recording your kid blowing out the candles They're able to see everything around you in the environment.

9:19They're able to listen to the ambient noise. They're able to record so you can hear sounds more in one ear than the other. So it's just this really immersive experience that's just you cannot get this on, you know, just looking at a video on your phone. You put that thing on and it feels like you're back in the environment. You can look from right to left and you can see what's going on around the environment. And very, very cool. I think that's going to be amazing for capturing memories and being a very immersive feature that, you know, you don't see something like that out of meta. So another thing that I think is pretty interesting is just the fact that you can literally use this, I believe, to replace monitors.

9:55You know, the thing cost$3 ,500 starting out. But I think that you could make a case that this could actually help you be more productive or perhaps help you if you are working remote or on the move. and I really think this is kind of ushering in what Apple is calling a kind of a new area of spatial computing where you have computers and all of your technology that are in integrated in very spatial manner something really cool I think that they also integrated was the ability because they have their LiDAR and also sound detection they have the sound optimized in this headset for the environment you're in so if you're sitting in your living room and you have a couch and a wall all of those things absorb sound differently and so they have this thing optimized so based off of whatever environment you're in the sound and the audio will be optimized for that to sound like it is you know bouncing off of objects in certain ways it's gonna be really really impressive you can navigate how navigation works on this is by using your eyes your hands and your voice and the different variations of the three I think it's gonna be really amazing for just watching shows.

11:04I remember when I first got my MetaQuest headset, watching a show on there, it seemed really cool. But the problem was, number one, the MetaQuest headset is not super crisp. So this thing is the equivalent of having two 4k TVs, one for each eye. So like incredibly, incredibly crisp. And of course, that's just due to the higher price point, you could not have, you know, afforded to put that into a$600 MetaQuest. And so the I think the video viewing is gonna be a lot better. Apparently, they have a custom chip that they've designed for this. That is called, I believe the R1 chip, they also have the M2 chip, which they put in most of their, you know, laptops and other technology.

11:47And so they have really powerful chips and custom chips that essentially they said they've cut the latency down from like what you see to what is being or what is around you to what you see, right? Because it's all getting picked up by cameras. And so the latency is getting cut down to, I think, something like 12 milliseconds, which is like eight times faster than the blink of an eye, something like that. So essentially what's going on is that latency was often what would cause you to feel a little bit sick. People were, you know, they talked about in the past, like when you put a VR headset on, you might have felt like a little bit nauseous or motion sickness.

12:21And a lot of that is due to just like the lag between what you were seeing and the movements you are making. And so Apple has put a lot of effort into cutting that down. And so with their really crisp video and their low latency, I believe this is going to really help kind of cut out some of that nausea that a lot of people talked about. So when we're talking about the apps that are on this thing with the Vision Pro, essentially you have an infinite canvas around you to transport however you use apps, whatever apps you love, those are all going going to be still available for you on this platform.

12:55And you're just going to be able to open up all around you into different into your environment all around you, which is, you know, going to be pretty cool. I think another cool part of this is that it's alternate reality. So for example, I could be cooking in the kitchen and like between, you know, putting the water and the pasta in the bowl, I could also be working on a PowerPoint presentation and, you know, making a little tweak here and there. So I think that's going to be interesting, similar to the way that podcasting, I believe kind of helped with productivity, where if I'm doing something that requires my hands, but not so much my mind, I'm going to listen to a podcast, right?

13:27Like if I'm folding laundry or something, I'm going to listen to a podcast. I feel like I make the most use of the time I'm entertained. And I think that this might be something similar where you're able to work on things while you have tasks that are kind of lower. They require less processing from your own brain, right? Like cooking dinner or doing something you've done a hundred times. you can now do additional things at the same time which I think is really useful and like that you couldn't use a phone for I think that's what's important is that this can replace your phone in a lot of situations or or I guess be augmented because with a phone you have to be holding it and this if you're wearing it and doing some some tasks and just using your hands as gestures it's kind of like a whole new medium where you your hands are free so now I think it's going to open up the same way podcasts opened up you know if your mind was free during a task you could listen to a podcast now if your hands are free while you're doing a task uh you can or i guess now you can do tasks that require your hands sort of um part-time uh and to use this so i think that's going to be really cool it's going to be incredible to see how this uh continues to play out this apple um the new apple vision pro and to see how ai is integrated into this a lot of really cool technology has come out recently um there was a new project that essentially allows you to create 3d worlds and environments using a chat interface similar to what you see with chat gpt and so that is called blockable labs and so i think there so essentially that you could like type into that like create an environment that is like you know mountains in arizona during a sunset with you know palm trees around sand and maybe like a mountain lion in the corner you could say that and it would create this like environment for you so i think pairing some of these new technologies right into what is going on with Apple.

15:12There's going to be a lot of incredible innovation with AI and being able to create kind of these 3D worlds and environments that are now able to go into here. And in addition to that, kind of having this tool that is this augmented reality that could be permanently on you during the workday, right? You're working and you have all your monitors around you and your hands are free. And now you have so many more opportunities to use these tools. And I think for me, like I mentioned earlier, the use case of maybe I want to go on a hike and get a work project done from the top of a mountain. I think that even if when you're looking at AI and how AI integrates into things, all of a sudden like the mountaintop may not have been the place that I used to sit there and try to dream up a 3D environment like on that project I talked about.

15:54But all of a sudden when you have this new kind of work medium on your face, wouldn't it be cool if I was literally in Switzerland on top of the Swiss Alps and I was able to sit there and create a 3D environment on something like that, but I'm in the environment and I'm like, you know, create, um, you know, create the Swiss Alps. I want to see mountains here. I want to see rocks here. I want to see the sky is this color. And, um, eventually of course, when you're looking at some of the projects that Facebook is coming out with where they have, um, beyond they essentially they have multi-sensory input, uh, VR, um, environments and AI and AI applications that they're building for.

16:31So wouldn't it be cool if you were on top of the Swiss Alps using one of these 3d environment creators, but also you're saying like record the sound of the wind outside and add that in the background of my 3d environment and make sure that you um you know have the temperature in the room set to this certain degree and all these all these different like inputs that you can all of a sudden i feel like are more accessible because now you're out at this specific location is so it kind of frees you up where this technology no longer i believe is in just a studio or a desk you now can move this um To the world in a much easier way.

17:02This is like your entire work environment is now the world And so I think there's gonna be a lot of really incredible innovation and technology that comes out of this I think we're gonna see some I think AI is gonna get spurred from the adoption of this of these tools And I think that there's gonna be a lot of impressive innovations that we're not expecting to see now So this is gonna be a very interesting area to continue to follow as the Apple Vision Pro is set to Is set to come out and be accessible sometime early next year