Apple's Smart Glasses

Apple Bytes: 

There are legions of rumors and leaks that Apple is trying to get into the AR game, specifically, through the lenses of a new kind of eyewear, purportedly called Apple Glass. Apple might have a chance at bringing the eyewear to the mainstream for the first time.

Think about Apple Glass as a companion to your iPhone. Smartphones are already a second screen in some scenarios, so the eyeglasses might be considered your third screen, bringing information from your phone right to your eyes.

The lenses will have a holographic display. Through those lenses, Apple Glass will show anything from texts, to emails, to maps, or games in the wearer's field of vision.

Multiple reports suggest that Apple is considering creating a fully separate App Store for the headset, as well as a special operating system, likely called glassOS. This falls in line with the Apple Watch and watchOS, as well as Apple TV and tvOS.

And then there's two Apple patents from June that suggest the company is working on an optical vision correction system, meaning that the smart glasses will eliminate the need for prescription lenses or contacts. The system will address everything from astigmatism, to farsightedness, and nearsightedness.

If Apple Glass plans to pursue true augmented reality, rather than purely showing floating 2D notifications in the lenses, they'll probably require some connectivity to the iPhone. That way, the iPhone can do the actual video processing, keeping the onboard computing to a minimum in the glasses, themselves, much like the early models of the Apple Watch.

The iPhone could send back 3D imagery to the lenses at a high frame rate per second. Bluetooth wouldn't make sense in that situation, because these bandwidths are too high for it to handle.

Battery life should probably be a minimum of three hours if Apple wants to be neck-and-neck competitive with the HoloLens 2 or Magic Leap 1. There's always the possibility that Apple could extend that battery life with a special glasses charging case, similar to what the company has done with AirPods, thereby extending the battery life in a sense.

Apple Glass marketing materials suggest that the spectacles will give off a Clark Kent-like vibe, but the prototypes reportedly look like an "un-intimidating" pair of plastic frames. There's a lidar scanner on the right side, most likely to help scan your surrounding environment to help overlay 3D images in a realistic manner, but so far no cameras.

Apparently, there are no plans to make the first run of Apple Glass in various tinted varieties, so if transition lenses or prescription sunglasses are your thing, you'll have to wait even longer. But like the iPhone, there's reason to believe you'll see more choices over time.

Apple Glass may be announced as early as this year at the company's September event and roll out in 2021. Or the introduction could come a year later. The company will often announce a product before actually shipping it out, in a similar style to the Apple Watch in its earliest days. Nobody really knows when Apple Glass will roll out, but it will probably be within the next three years.

The glasses will run you $499 at launch, plus the price of any additional prescription that the optical system has to account for. That's much cheaper than Microsoft's Hololens 2, which costs a whopping $3,500. The low price probably has to do with the fact that there's no onboard computer require, the iPhone will handle that.

At the moment, the main competitors in the smart glasses space include the Magic Leap 1, Spectacles by Snap, a new pair of Facebook glasses reportedly under development, the current version of Google Glass, and the Hololens 2.

Amazon is also apparently in the fray, working on a new product called Echo Frames, which is currently under beta. They use the Alexa voice assistant to bring information to you, but don't seem to rely on any holographic lenses or augmented reality.

None of the commercially available glasses have been breakaway hits so far, but it's possible that Apple could change that and make smart glasses a new product category. Apple tends to take a more conservative approach to its product releases, often rolling out technology that other companies have already pursued, but with a more sleek and elegant design.

Plus, it doesn't hurt to have a legion of devoted brand enthusiasts, ready to gobble up the product yesterday.

Credit: popularmechanics.com