Why The Engineering World Is Going To Provide The Killer App For AR/VR
By Gavin Bridgeman • When Apple released the Vision Pro headset, many people held their breath. Perhaps they were going to be the ones to make augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) finally hit mainstream market success. Apple has an uncanny knack for making previously niche technology user friendly and popular, so the anticipation felt justified.
Others have been trying to put this technology into more homes. Microsoft gave it a go with HoloLens, and Facebook is having a swing with its Quest headsets but neither have had the resounding success some anticipated. So, could Apple be the one to make AR the next big thing in tech?
In the shortest terms possible, no, but they’ve got closer than most. Apple has set a stage for other developers, especially those in the engineering world, to create the application that finally sees AR/VR technology hit mainstream appeal.
What Apple Hardware Does Right
A cornerstone of Apple's approach is creating an augmented reality device rather than a true virtual reality one. Where some headsets have you sticking your head into a virtual world (looking at you, Facebook), Apple’s Vision Pro overlays digital data onto the real world. The technology functions more like high-tech glasses rather than a full-on face mask. Users can choose to apply a more immersive VR experience, but flexibility is a key selling point.
The apps you want to use are floating around in your living room with you, instead of you feeling shut off from the real world. The Vision Pro further perpetuates this grounding in the real world by playing a synthesized video of your eyes on the outside of the device, as if the device were translucent. Putting on the glasses feels like science fiction, rather than awkward, clunky headgear. This innovative hardware is nothing without capable applications to take advantage of it.
Good Software is Key to AR/VR Success – Engineering Can Provide It
Like many great innovations in computing, AR/VR success hinges on a combination of revolutionary hardware coupled with killer apps. As of now, the apps available on Vision Pro are limited, but Apple says they are focused on Entertainment and Productivity.
Our engineering community is in a great position to be one of the providers of some of the most important productivity apps.
The industry is full of information-rich, digital 3D models that we work with on a daily basis. The adoption of Digital Twins has steadily been growing over the last decade in 3D engineering. The proliferation of connected devices and the Internet of Things (IoT) overlayed on Digital Twins have made them significantly more informative. Being about to see and interact with this data using an AR device is exactly the type of AR experience the Apple Vision Pro is trying to provide its customers.
Practically, the applications of these capabilities would be extremely useful for service and maintenance. Service technicians can see disassembly and assembly information overlayed on machinery or be coached by a remote expert as they conduct maintenance in the field. This tech can also impact the consumer market by assisting homeowners, in x-ray mode to see the framing and plumbing behind walls in their homes when renovating.
The tricky part with digital models is aligning them to align with the real world. With tools like Apple's ARKit (and Google's ARCore), we are one step closer than we have ever been. The quality and immersion of these headsets get us much closer to feeling like digital and physical worlds coexist. If you've tried out the Vision Pro, you might've noticed how apps cast shadows on your coffee table. These subtle interactions are crucial to making AR feel real and grounded and represent a huge move in the right direction.
This type of realism is only possible through powerful and sophisticated technology, and Apple has made this available to developers with their ARKit SDK.
The next big leap is figuring out how to get 3D scenes to recognize and align reliably with their real-world counterparts. Once we crack that code, the possibilities are endless. We could overlay digital info in endless ways, making our world a blend of physical and digital like never before.
The engineering space has been investing in and working with the 3D community for decades, making them perfectly poised to deliver that killer app for AR/VR. The road ahead might be packed with challenges, but the chance to bring a bit of the future into the present is too good to pass up. Engineers have turned science fiction into science fact before, and are set to do it again with helping drive AR/VR mainstream.
*The Apple Vision Pro and respective images are the intellectual property of Apple, and can be found here.