It’s been a few months since Apple introduced a completely new product after a long time. Vision Pro smart glasses, so far only available in America, are selling by the thousands. The long-awaited device aims to layer applications and information on top of the real world – thus augmenting reality as people know it. We tried the glasses, which cost almost a hundred thousand, in the Karlin studio Yord.
“The era of spatial computing has arrived,” CEO Tim Cook said last year when Apple’s Vision Pro device was first introduced, calling the Vision Pro the most advanced consumer electronics device ever created. At the time, the company described the smart glasses as a “revolutionary spatial computer” that is set to change the way people work, collaborate and connect. However, the first reactions of users are mostly lukewarm.
Apple started selling its glasses first in the American market. In the first ten days, the company sold around 200,000 glasses, while estimating that it would manage to sell around 160,000 pieces. “So what they wanted to sell, they sold,” said virtual reality expert David Mařák during the presentation of the Prague studio Yord. The device costs 3,499 dollars, so the interested party will pay more than 80,000 in crowns.
Drying of Apple Vision Pro in the Yord studio in Prague. | Photo: Jakub Plíhal
During February, Apple launched pre-orders, and the device reached the first customers at the beginning of March. It is not certain when the technological convenience will reach the rest of the world, so many enthusiasts travel all the way to the USA to pick up their devices. The start-up Yord also got its piece from there.
According to the co-founder and technical director of the studio Mařák, Apple’s glasses are the closest to penetrating mainstream society with virtual reality. And this despite the fact that there are more available and much cheaper variants on the market. For example, the Meta Quest 3 device, which according to the developers is one of Apple’s main competitors in the field of virtual reality, costs about 16 thousand crowns. “However, other manufacturers focus more on gamers and entertainment, while Apple focuses more on regular users and work,” he explains.
Despite this, the glasses also offer games, but they are mainly recreational titles. “Honestly, nobody would want to sweat in these glasses,” says Mařák. In addition to the fact that the glasses are not breathable and can last for around two hours without a direct connection to the network, the comfort of wearing them is also significantly reduced by their relatively high weight. The device weighs around 600 grams, but this is only a small difference compared to the competition.
Glasses allow you to “travel through time”
In order to efficiently and accurately monitor the user and his surroundings, Apple Vision Pro is equipped with twelve cameras, six microphones and five sensors. It also has two chips in the design, which allow the glasses to process all processes in real time. The difference between what the user does when using Apple Vision and how long it takes the device to react should be a maximum of twelve milliseconds.
The speed should not only draw you into virtual reality, but also prevent possible nausea, which is not unusual when using devices of this type. “I admit that I felt a little nauseous when I filmed something with the glasses and then played it in the same place a few seconds later,” admits the Yord studio manager Stanislav Štěpánek.
Drying of Apple Vision Pro in the Yord studio in Prague. | Photo: Jakub Plíhal
It is the images and recordings that are one of the elements that appeals to Apple Vision Pro. The glasses have a camera that allows you to take spatial videos and photos.
Viewing images in the gallery feels as if the user has a tool at his disposal that allows him to go back in time. It’s a fascinating, but also quite creepy feature. Especially when a user accidentally opens a life-size portrait of a stranger in a borrowed headset while hastily clicking through the gallery.
In order not to disturb the experience of using Apple Vision Pro, the glasses are equipped with a light seal. This is attached to the structure with a not very strong magnet, which the user must not grab when putting on or taking off the device. It could happen that the astronomically expensive glasses slip out of his hands and fall to the ground. At best on the carpet at home, at worst when walking outside on the sidewalk.
Vision Pro has a better user interface, better image quality, more applications and more computing power than other headsets. However, in order for the high-tech device to work, it must be connected to an external battery that only lasts for two hours. “However, few people could stand wearing them for more than an hour and a half,” says Mařák.
The developer from IKEMU hoped for more
High-quality glasses capable of projecting virtual reality can revolutionize a number of industries. In healthcare, experts are exploring exciting ways to help patients and healthcare providers achieve better treatments and outcomes, including surgery, physical and cognitive rehabilitation, mental health, and pain management.
However, virtual reality specialist from the Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine David Sibřina is critical in the case of Apple Vision Pro. According to him, the first version of the device, from which the developers had high expectations, is still impractical for the medical environment. “I admit, I was quite disappointed at first. I have no doubt that it is a quality device, but given such a high price, I expected it to be more of a tool to help professionals in their work. However, it is more of a glasses for the average user,” he explains with by the institute purchasing several Apple Pro Vision models despite skepticism.
Drying of Apple Vision Pro in the Yord studio in Prague. | Photo: Jakub Plíhal
The Prague IKEM is one of the few hospital facilities in the world in which virtual reality intervenes in medical practice in a way other than just in the form of student training. Using smart glasses, surgeons in Krč have been planning specific interventions on specific models for each patient for two years. “For example, we prepared liver transplants and tumor resections. To date, we have used virtual reality in more than three hundred cases,” says Sibřina.
Currently, the institute has about sixty pieces of different types of virtual glasses. According to Sibrina, the best way to use the glasses from the Meta Quest 3 company for medical purposes is to use them. and look at them,” he describes. Doctors can even review patient information together remotely using video calls.
2024-03-02 10:00:20
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